PaperPrincess

As far as the feed dogs up/down when free motion quilting. Most folks go with the feed dogs down, however, I have read where some quilters leave them up. I would try them both ways and see which way works best for you. As in all things quilting, there's no one right answer. Here's an interesting article on this topic:
https://leahday.com/pages/drop-feed-...otion-quilting

NJ Quilter

I've been fortunate with my machine that the little straight-line quilting I've done has been without a walking foot. I don't even own one! Everything seems to move along just fine and I've not gotten puckers or pleats on the back. Perhaps I've just been really lucky!

nativetexan

i actually took a class on Free motion quilting and the instructor had us leave our feed dogs up. stitch length I always set down to very small or zero. I move the quilt which controls the stitch length. at that time, it worked well with feed dogs up or down. i've done both since but usually put them down. i move the quilt. when feed dogs up and you are using your machine to "quilt" the feed dogs move the quilt along.

jmoore

When I first took a class from Leah Day (about 3 years ago) she taught us to leave our feed dogs up and 0 stitch length...But now I have a supreme slider for my DSM so I have been lowering them so not to chew up the $50 slider.

Farm Quilter

Just an FYI on using rulers for quilting...you will need the bed of your sewing machine to be level with your table or have an acrylic "table" to create a larger flat area to stabilize your ruler. I quilt on a longarm and when I use rulers, I have to attach an acrylic table to my machine. Rulers are fun, especially when you figure out how much pressure you need to hold the ruler steady while you quilt around it.

ckcowl

I'm a longarm quilter, so no feed dogs involved. I free motion quilt all the time, often free hand, meaning I do not use any rulers, stencils, patterns I just quilt, often without a pattern in mind. I let the quilt top guide me along doing what I like along the way-- Free motion, Free hand.
there are times that a pattern is appropriate, or rulers are needed, stencils come in handy or even a pantograph. For long arm(ers ) free motion often means hand guided-- not computer guided.

Jingle

I mostly do FMQ - free motion quilting. I move the quilt sandwich whichever way I want.

maviskw

Thanks for showing us the difference between "Free Motion" and "Free Motion, Free Hand".

I use my Domestic Machine and do lots of free hand quilting. I have figured out a pattern of quilting that I have not seen on any other blog. It is so much fun to just go where you please at the moment.

Once in a while I get out my stencils and pounce (corn starch and sponge paint brush) and make a pattern to follow. Sometimes that is necessary to keep a certain pattern within an area.

Safetysue

Thanks for asking this/these questions. I too am confused by it all. I'm a total newbie in this arena.

NJ Quilter

All of these wonderful responses now beg the question...

When you FMQ but do not do it free hand, or use rulers - are you using stencils? Are these the same type stencils I use for my hand quilting? Or something totally different. Maybe I can manage with stencils vs the whole ruler thing??