Hi Diana - first thing the name quilter teachers tell us is "try to relax those shoulders" - right!!! I started wearing a quilter's glove to lightly move the fabric around and kept practicing and now I do a pretty fine job. When I was practicing, I did not worry about crossing stitching - I wanted to just get the movement down. I hope this helps - I also put my machine on medium speed so I did not feel like I was on a "stippling marathon" - hope you smile and just keep at it - I know it looks better than what you are taking credit for. Linda in IL