I can't move forward on some quilt projects until I can buy more fabric. So last night I dug out my first attempt at a quilt top (using cheap ugly fabrics, so if it didn't work out, I wouldn't be upset!) and cut it into squares and decided to give FMQ a try.
First one, total disaster. I kept fighting with the tension on my machine because of loops on the backside and then I googled and found it wasn't the tension, it was me and I either need to slow my hands down or speed the machine up.
So the second one was a noticable improvement. But still nothing I would ever want to give someone as a gift! Finally after more googling read a thing from Leah Day saying she never drops the feed dogs for fmq. Set the stitch length to 0, yes, but don't drop the dogs.
I tried that for the 3rd and there was a HUGE difference. The stitches looked soooo much nicer. Not sure why, but it made a huge improvement.
I still don't like the way it looks though. all my stitches look way too tiny and it just doesn't look pretty at all. I guess I will have to work on going faster with the foot peddle because moving my hands slower just makes these ugly tiny stitches. Ah well. I think for the next 3 projects which are gifts, I will just do straight line quilting with the walking foot while I keep working on this.