Originally Posted by Jannie
I read recently & tried this -- use your darning foot but don't lower the feed dogs. It did seem to give a little more control.
I had initially tried with the feed dogs down and had lots of tension problems. After I raised up the feed dogs, my tension problems were gone!
I'm using a 30wt cotton thread for FMQ. Try to use similar colour threads for top and bobbin, so the tension problem will not be obvious.
The quilting gloves are useful as they allow you to have a better grip on your quilt. Practice on small practice sandwiches to get a better feel of your tension, machine speed etc before progressing to a large quilt.
Leah Day is selling an ultimate quilting kit consisting of quilting gloves, bobbin washes and the supreme slider, so you may like to check it out.
http://www.daystyledesigns.com/ultimatekit.htm
You may like to try sewing straight lines using your darning foot first, to have a feel of your foot pedal speed and your hand movements. Then slowly progress to sewing loops, curves etc. Some simple designs to start with are meandering, stippling and loop de loop. I'm very new to FMQ myself and also practicing very hard now. With more practice, I could see my stitches improving and getting more even. It was very daunting at the beginning but I could see my confidence increasing over time.
I had earlier posted a thread on some FMQ problems I had. You may like to check out the thread for all the wonderful advice from the quilters on this board.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-124688-1.htm
All the best and keep practicing!