I can certainly relate to all of the above! About 15 years ago I started floundering around just trying to teach myself FMQ cuz I didn’t know anyone to teach me or show me how - but i really wanted to do it!
At some point in the first couple of years I found the DVDs by Patsy Thompson and I was hooked! For a long time all I could manage was the stippling (like puzzle pieces) and concentrated on trying real hard not to keep “painting myself into a corner” (who doesn’t know that one?). Like others, all of a sudden I must have started to relax a little and things got a lot better - shocked the heck outta myself! Graduated into flowers, etc - and ended up teaching what I knew and what worked for me.
All of these years later I still love FMQ and even though I got a little rusty from too many hours at work and too few hours in the sewing room, I am happy to report that the muscle memory does come back!
For many years I was convinced that I wanted a standup longarm with all the bells and whistles but decided against it due to lack of room at home that could be dedicated to it (not to mention the price tag - but believe me, if I was sold on the idea I would have figured out a way!). But something just kept holding me back.
With retirement coming in to focus in about 3 years, I again thought about a longarm. But, to my surprise - the more thought I gave to the idea, the more I realized how much I really love FMQ. Last October I found the perfect solution - I bought a sitdown longarm that fits perfectly in my sewing room and didn’t give my husband heartburn with the price tag when I floated the trial balloon about my decision! Now I’m getting all of those tops quilted and having a ball! With all of the extra harp room it’s so much more relaxing, and now I’m starting to branch out into all kinds of flowers and plan to try feathers soon. I am so happy I kept at the FMQ until I loved it! I’m also happy that I didn’t make the mistake (for me - not anyone else here) of forging ahead and getting the standup longarm that I now know I would not have been happy with in the longrun. Which is not to say that I don’t enormously admire anyone here who is much better suited to such a wonderful setup... I just know that wasn’t the right move for me.
I am definitely going to check out that Facebook site that jokir44 just posted about!