I'll add my learnings as well. This is my advice to the
absolute first timer:
1. Practice sandwiches - make several but don't make them too small. Try a yard of muslim or other what-was-I-thinking fabric top and bottom. One of the hardest things is to find your rhythm. If the practice piece is too small you barely get in the groove and you've run out of fabric.
2. Slow down. Get your machine up to medium speed and move your hands slowly. I started out thinking I needed to go hell-bent-for-leather which got me nowhere fast.
3. In the very beginning
ignore your tension. Use the same weight thread top and bobbin. You will get lots of funny eyelashes on the back and threads from the top will appear on the back and vice verse. Most of these problems will 'magically' disappear after an hour or two of practice. I spent a lot of time fiddling with tension in the beginning which only added to my frustration and never resolved itself until I had practised a while.
4. Draw a pattern on your practice sandwich with a disappearing pen and then try to stitch over it. You will miss the line a lot. Put the sandwich aside for a day and let the pen line disappear. Re-look at your stitching, it will look much better than you thought. Now try to stitch over your previous stitching. This is hard but this exercise did more to improve my control skills then any other. It also makes you slow down!
5. Remember literally thousands of people have managed to fmq on every imaginable type of machine. If they can do it so can you! Undoubtedly there will be moments when you think this is impossible. It isn't really. Take a break. Take a deep breath. Relax. It does get fun. It just takes a while.
Having said all that I just want to add a caveat - I am still a real beginner. I've done a load of practice sandwiches and only one double bed sized quilt (which isn't perfect but I am quite pleased with it). Keep the source in mind when considering the advice
