Originally Posted by noveltyjunkie

Now, before I start, I have to get the "practice, practice" thing out of the way. I KNOW that practice is vital to the acquisition of any skill, and I am willing to do it. Really. I actually embrace that concept. So please don't just tell me to practice, practice.

My problem is that I am practicing, spending hours in front of the machine (Brother NS30- pretty basic) without learning anything at all from it. It is making me grumpy and downhearted. Nothing is going right, and I have no idea why. I am, as a very wise swim teacher once told me "just practicing your mistakes".

So, I make no secret of being a bit impatient, and I thought that, for me, this product http://www.rgadesignquilts.com/store...products_id=16 looked like a really good tool. No danger of ruining something I had pieced myself, but yet the discipline of following something, rather than just meandering all over a blank sandwich. I purchased it (at a price far in excess of that quoted here, seeing as I live waaaaay down under) and I read it carefully. I kept it for a while because I felt I was not good enough at basic machine sewing (had had trouble with tension etc) and, when I eventually realised that I knew my machine and felt ready to embark on some new learning, I took it out of the packet, read the instructions, basted it (very carefully), set up some practice sandwiches to get my tension right on and, when I felt I had done as much as I needed to by way of preparation, I began.

I really was ready to make lots of mistakes. I am a beginner quilter. I understand that, but what I was not prepared for was for everything to go wrong at once. I thought that I would work along and have moments when I would see a few (of the many things necessary) go right and, in time, with practice, I would increase the number of balls I could keep in the air, so to speak.

I would first (so I thought) learn to speak and chew gum simultaneously, and then I would eventally be able to add in some extra multi-tasks until I could, one day, move the sandwich smoothly, keep the stitch length acceptable (ie somewhere on the continuum where it actaully looks like a stitch and not like a scar, and not like a piece of thread stretched across the fabric like a fairy's clothesline) I knew it would not be pretty, but I thought it would, for a few minutes out of each hour at least, offer the promise of improvements to come with, yes, practice.

So, what went wrong? Well, as advertised above, everything. I wont list them all but tension of course, was the worst. I followed the received wisdom and I experimented- dogs down and dogs up with stitch length shortened. Varied speed of the machine and of my arms. No combo produced a decent stitch unless I slowed down so much that I might as well have been hand quilting the thing. My shoulders tensed, my seam ripper glowed hot from over use, my floor filled up with unsightly worms of discarded thread. I became discouraged. I became angry. I went to bed and next day, I tried again.

With the clarity of the new day, I could see that my top tension was being ruined by me moving the sandwich. There was no other explanation. Of all the reading I did (and I read a lot) no one had a solution to offer on this. Except practice. Back to the s - u - p - e - r - s - l - o - w sewing. Didnt work much better. Fiddled with the tension wheel. From bad to worse. Changed the bobbin. Nah. Tried pushing, pulling, side to side motion. One worse than the other. Took a break. Tried again.

Now my conclusion is that, by moving the quilt (which is the whole point) I (a) stuff up the tension and (b) produce wonky lines, influenced, no doubt, by my fury at having parted with so much cash for a piece of fabric with lines printed on it.

If anyone is still reading, thank you for caring enough to get to the end. I am off to "practice" some more.

Originally Posted by Jo Belmont

I heartily second all the tips that Stephanie (K9 Dancer) on page 3 listed as she uses when teaching. To that I would add that which helped me cross over into the world of FMQ:

Prepare a practice sandwich at least 12" square. In regular, medium-length stitching mode (after checking your tensions to ensure you're getting a good stitch), with a regular (or walking) foot, feed dogs UP, etc., stitch a grid work about 1-1/2" apart.

NOW, change your top thread color, drop the feed dogs and put on your FMQ/darning foot. Start stitching from left to right about a quarter-inch from the first line of stitching, attempting to duplicate the stitches that were regulated by the machine. (The first ones are usually pretty much garbage. If not, you're ahead of the game already.)

Then, repeat the next line of FMQ stitching a quarter inch from the one just sewn, again trying to keep your stitches appearing as close to the regulated line as you can. (The second one's a tad better.)

Now, keep doing that all the way across. You should begin to see some improvement.

Turn the practice piece around and do the same on the next grid all the way across.

By the time you get done, I'll betcha that you'll be pretty close and will have developed a touch, a coordination that really works for you.

You got nothing to lose but a practice sandwich.

Hope it works for you.

Originally Posted by Mollie'sMom

I read all of this thread and not once did I see anyone mention that the presser foot has to be down. When I first started to use a hopping foot, I did not lower the presser foot (it is hard to tell if it is up or down when there is a thick quilt under it). Boy, did I ever have tension problems and a lot of ripping out to do. .......

Originally Posted by noveltyjunkie

...I have posted before about how there is nothing like your mother to make you feel bad about your inadequacies....