How do you decide what kind of a free motion pattern you should use? I have an eight pointed star I am making into a wall hanging. I have 4 squares in each corner and 4 triangles between the points that are plain. Should I put separate designs in those areas? Will that distract from the star.

Are there any books or patterns available for free motion? How much do you have to practice or should I print a pattern, .........or should I just start and hope for the best. I am relatively new to quilt making. I usually do small projects. This is a wall hanging.

Thank you. Sally.

You know, it would really help you to take a class. I thought I could do it on my own - it looks so easy! - but I just made a mess of it.

You will need to drop your feed dogs and use a darning foot. When I teach this, I have the students start with making loops (like strings of cursive letter i's and l's) and then a spiral and then write their names and other words. It's actually harder to follow a pattern than do it free-motion. Practice on fabric that you absolutely don't want!

:) Hi! Yes You really just have to get in there and give the freemotion quilting a real try, I started in the Fall and I LOVE IT, I should have tried before. But once I began I never wanted to stop, You can go forwards and backwards and sideways and makes swirls and loops or feathers ,stars,fireworks, anything goes , yes you will make mistakes but as you go along you do get better at it and come up with your own designs just like the Pioneer women did with there quilting,We too are Pioneers when beginning something new to us like the Free Motion Quilting. Go For It Girl!!!!! :D

It just takes a lot of practice, practice, practice to develop one's own style and to feel comfortable.

Just keep practising you may suprise yourself at what you realy can do.

I agree, practice, practice, practice. Make sure you start with something small.

You can do a lot of neat stuff without ever doing any FMQ'ing. I really enjoy using the built in decorative stitches in my machine in place of quilting, combined with embroidery, and stitch in the ditch. Here's a little table topper I just did. I quilted it initially with FMQ'ing, didn't care for the effect with the embroidery, so I ripped it all out and replaced it with very simple quilting and decorative stitches.

Just a thought.

http://www.wanderingquilter.com/stor...ble-Topper.jpg