tessagin

Pretty much same here. And I do like my walking foot. I've played/practiced. Last one I did was a straight stitch on diagonal. Like Weezy Rider states also if they don't get right to the nitty gritty, I move on.

catsden

I just jumped in. Could not afford to send a quilt out to be quilted so just watched videos, read books, and practiced. Once I finally learned to do feathers everything else seemed much easier. I love Leah Day and Angela Walters.

Kwiltr

I did a lot of what most others have already said, but I think the thing that really helped making the transition to a bigger quilt was Ann Peterson's Craftsy class, Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine. I have used her methods time and time again, and have never had a pleat or pucker and have made a few King sized quilts. Highly recommend.

Annababy

I watched YouTube video's and I am jumping in. I have done a few practice runs, but it's time to just go for it!

Watson

A LOT of practice sandwiches. Another thing that really made the difference was getting a non-hopping foot. Having that gliding foot just made everything so much easier for me. I use a Supreme Slider and Machingers. I've taken a couple of Craftsy classes, but mainly I have just practiced on quilt sandwiches until I could do whatever design I wanted.
I always spray baste my quilts.
The best class I took on Craftsy was Free Motion Quilting Essentials with Christina Camelli. Really basic, but showed lots of foundational designs to work from.
Now, if I could just get those feathers figured out!
Watson

RedGarnet222

Lots of practice and reading mostly. I am not great at it, but, I am mostly concentrating on the function part before the design part. I feel this way, it needs to hold up to many washings so making sure it is stable is my concern. Then I do enjoy playing with designs. I just got the foot and westalee heavy plastic templets to learn with. On one quilt I have used four different ways of quilting. Like perhaps with the walking foot, free motion and marking a design, or a quilt design built in on my bernina. It all is done in different ways with different feet. I have watched videos, taken craftsy classes and read books.

I guess what I am trying to suggest is, be kind to yourself and just jump in and play with it. Each way takes learning how and practice. Try on maybe pot holders and work up to larger and larger projects. You will learn things as you go and it will be so fun, you won't want to stop. Honestly! It is fun when you stop being so afraid. No one is going to be critical of your work like you. Right? So be kind to yourself and have fun!

Once you start quilting, you will never look at the quilts at a quilt show the same again.

Oh one thing I forgot. I have a little notebook that I keep notes in just for the quilting. It has machine settings, thread types and other things I want to remember about my quilting techniques. That way, once I like what I see, I write it down so I can refer to it next time I am going to do it again. I don't want to waste time every quilt trying to remember what I did. Smart, huh?

Weezy Rider

I've since taken some Craftsy classes. I even found one that had a written transcript with it as the instructor talked.

All of the classes should have that. There are people who are hard of hearing at any age and some devices can be annoying with earphones. I had a tablet that cut the volume as soon as the earphone jack was used. Said to keep the device from allowing "loud music".

We aren't listening to loud music, but an instructor who often talks while stitching on the machine so turning up the volume isn't damaging. ( there was an override, but try to find it)

My cat gets tangled in the earphones if I use my laptop.

osewme

I have been sewing (my own clothes) since I was about 12 years old & made one very simple quilt when I was in high school (hand pieced and quilted). It was made from scrap fabric that I had left over from dresses that I had made in high school. The quilt was a simple scrappy with 2" squares. Then when I was 58 years old a friend of mine took up machine quilting & helped me get started in it. It was difficult for me to accept machine quilting as all I have ever heard of was hand pieced/quilted quilts. Machine quilting almost seemed like "cheating" to me. Anyway, she convinced me to learn & with her help & a quilt class that we went to together I was off & running. Then I watched tons of tutorials online & learned from other quilters on quilting forums. I've never gotten the hang of FM quilting but I love it on quilts. I'm mainly a stitch in ditch quilter but I do use some templates at times & do a little stippling.

MadQuilter

I started with Stitch-in-the-ditch which on occasion turned into meandering around the ditch. That was relatively easy and I realized that I really needed to pay attention to the sandwich and baste process. The backing needed to be taut (but not over-stretched). Then the batting needs to be nicely smoothed and the top too needs to be smoothed. I have had good luck with that method (both pin basting and spray basting).

Once I ventured into FMQ it was a disaster. I had plenty of books and watched videos. I took classes and while I was in the class, everything went well. Alone at home it was a different story. I told DH that I was so bad I didn't even suck at it. lol

Over time I had to give myself the proverbial kick in the pants to keep practicing. I also started to doodle and have filled many sketchbooks with doodles and FMQ patterns. Craftsy classes helped me too. My favorites are with Christina Cameli as she is so positive and supportive.

After that, it's practice - practice - practice and you'll be amazed at the progress.

rryder

I started out thread painting in the early 80's on a machine where you didn't use a foot when doing free motion thread painting, then I did a few trial quilt sandwiches and put it away for 20 years. When I started up again in the 2000's I just put together some practice sandwiches and started doodling. I didn't worry about stitch length or even what I was quilting, just played. Sometimes it just looked like a kid's scribbling, but even that helped get the control down. Then when Craftsy started up I began taking classes.

I say just jump in and play. It's only fabric, and fabric can be replaced. The more you play, the better you will get. I spend a fair amount of time FMQ doodling, using pieces of cheap craft store felt for my sandwiches. I find it very relaxing. I also give myself a break if I'm having a day when my stitches aren't all the same size, if they're sturdy and the quilt will stay together, then I'm good with that even if some are a little longer than others. Same with wobbles. "Mistakes" become an opportunity to either learn how to fix or to develop a new design. What I'm getting at here is: don't be too critical of your efforts, just enjoy the process. It's about having fun.

Rob