Thread: Stitch length for free motion quilting

Originally Posted by michlowe

Try this link for info. She is incredible!!
http://www.daystyledesigns.com

This is so interesting! I looked at her website FAQs after reading your post. I had seen her website before, with the FMQ tutorials. Amazing! Anyway, her FAQs said that she doesn't drop the feed dogs for FMQ, so I decided to try that out today. I couldn't see how that would work, when going side to side and every which way, but I know she moves 360 degrees in a lot of her designs. I tested it out, and I do feel like it has helped me to have a more even stitch, no matter which direction I'm going. I think it's because the feed dogs do drop briefly as part of their normal movement, and so that is somewhat regulating the speed at which I'm moving the quilt sandwich. My stitches still aren't perfectly even, but I had fewer that were so bad that I had to pull them out.

Originally Posted by dunster

Well, it does depend on the machine you're using. With the Bernina's stitch regulator (BSR), you set the stitch length to whatever you want, and move the fabric at any speed, and you will get even stitches.

I agree with this one. It depends on your machine and how it is designed. I have a Viking Ruby and I go in and tell it which of the two FMQ options I want to use and that's it. It sets things the way it needs to be. I took a class for it to make sure I understood since there is so much debate out there. I was impressed by my first try. The size of the stitches were all on me and if you looked at my sample you could see that depending on my speed of moving the fabric and the speed of the machine.