Yay I'm so happy. I couple of months ago I took a class on machine quilting because my FMQ never looked right. I've still been too scared to use it on a quilt because I work so hard piecing that I was worried I'd hate the quilting and it would ruin the quilt.

So on Saturday I finished a top for my GFIL, who broke his leg and has to stay at a rehab place until it heals because he lives alone so I made him a quilt, and I figured this was a good time to go for it because it's a small simple quilt (D9P, about 45"x60") and he can't really see well anyway so the quilting isn't as important LOL

Anyway, it came our really well for a first time. My biggest problem is tension. Sometimes it's not right on the front, sometimes not right on the back. So it's not like I have to turn the tension dial- it's something with my quilting. I think I have to maintain a more even spead. I did beige on the front and blue on the back so sometimes you see a bit of blue on the front and beige on the back. But the meandering came out pretty well :)

Well done you brave thing! He'll love it and you overcame your nerves- win win.
Annie

Congratulations! How fun! It will be second-nature to you before you know it. :)

ok. . . I would love to see the picture!

Wonderful! I can't wait to find my courage - kudos to you!

You go girl!! I did learn when there are tension issues that it is better to do same color top and back as far as thread. For me biggest challenge is to keep the stitches even, and that relates to speed. FMQ is soooooooooooo much fun after hand quilting for years.

Way to go. Post a pic if possible. It's scary to FMQ at first but I'm sure you will learn to love it.

Well done. Would love to see a picture.

Congrats. Would love to see a picture.

Here are some pics. You can see some of the quilting in the second pic :)

Yea! You did better than me and I can't bring myself to do it again!

Well done you and I'm sure your GFIL will just love it.

Thanks all. I mailed it off to him today :)

BTW, I love your Tetris quilt!

Haha thanks !!!

Great job!! I also did two different colors on my first attempt at FMQ. I really liked the way it turned out, I also had the same problem with the top thread and bottom that you did. After practicing over and over with different tenions finally found something that worked. Also with my machine when you have the darning foot on you could not tell if the foot was up or down. So when I would forget to put the foot down then that would mess the tension up. I think the FMQ looks great though.

Hi!
What is GFIL and FMQ? I'm not very good at this and is there somewhere I can find out?
Nancy

GFIL = Grandfather-in-law
FMQ= Free motion quilting

There is a list of abbreviations somewhere, maybe someone can link us to it :)