Originally Posted by
kellyer21
I figured out the tension thing I think! But then when I got into a groove with tempo between moving my hands and machine speed, I found that I kept bumping my hands into the presser foot.
With FMQ you just quilt a small area, stop the machine, then re-position your hands. The number I hear most often is it takes 8 hours of practice to feel somewhat comfortable with FMQ. I didn't have much money for fabric so I re-did that practice sandwich maybe 7-8x, grabbed some old flannel pj's that I cut up to make a changing pad for my nephew that gave me some more practice & then went to work on my niece's crib quilt. That first quilt was a lot of work, but by the time I finished it, I felt pretty comfortable with FMQ. There's nothing wrong with straight line stitching -- it truly is beautiful in its own right. But if you can get in the practice (an hour a day for a week, or 20 minutes a day for 21 days, or one marathon weekend), I promise it really does get easier.
