I just completed a free motion machine quilter with my standard sewing machine. I have never been so frustrated and yet intrigued in my whole life. It was fun but it is obvious to me that it requires a lot of practice.

One word of advice I would like to pass along is regarding thread. Being cheap, Coats and Clark has been my best friend for my quilting projects and has seemed to work well. This was NOT the case at the class I took when I was trying to learn how to do free motion quilting. My thread kept breaking toward the end of the class. After class at home, I was practicing and my machine started acting up. It didn't matter what I did: rethread, fooled with bobbin, adjusted tension. I just could not get a decent stitch. Finally, my DH took apart the bobbin and found lots and lots of short little pieces of red thread. (like I had used in class) Apparently, Coats and Clark thread is composed of short cotton fibers and will "plug" up your machine. The better thread has long, long fibers and works better for machine quilting.

I learned cheap isn't always best. Good luck on your machine quilting. (BTW, wish me luck too!!!!! :mrgreen: )

p.s.---yes, you can do fancy designs!

Yea, good for you!

Congratulations!!!!!

Congrats on practicing. I kow that is what I need, but, life gets in the way. It is like everything else, set it as a priority, and it WILL happen! :lol:

Good luck Joan! Lessons learned from others are good investments. Thanks GG

Thats a very interesting web site.
Im still practicing free motion after 3 yrs. It is so hard.
I did find that by grid quilting the middle of my quilts then using free motion for the borders, that it is a great way to learn. This way you are not fighting the quilt since the borders do not have to be shoved thru the machine. All the quilt is to the left of the machine.
Simple continuous line hearts or leaves is a great way to practice.

Congrats to you :D :D :D Get as fancy as you want :D :D :D

I just bought Elegant Machine Quilting. Joanies book on Amazon. Got it for 6.99 used and 3.99 shipping.
Cant wait to get it.
They have more.

Glad it is working out for you. I have used stencils to do fancy stitching on my quilts and I do not have a long arm. Maybe someday when I win the lottery. Tee Hee

That's a great tip, Rose Marie. Although my free motion quilting is not close-up-photo worthy, I still have plugged along and given it the old try, contorting my quilt up so it fits under the machine arm and gives me a flat surface. I'm going to take your idea, though, and do more practice on the outside only.