JustAbitCrazy

Another simple thing which often causes eyelashes is having the quilt sandwich too tight. You should be able to grab your finger around the quilt sandwich if you push it up into the quilt from underneath. Hope that makes sense. When you are machine quilting, you are making a machine which was only designed to work in a straight line (while motionless) work in all directions, while in motion. This makes the needle have to flex, and it can only flex so much. Most of the "give" has to come from the quilt, not the needle. If there's not enough "give", the result is eyelashes, especially on tight curves, or if you are sewing fast.

Need to edit: Sorry---I didn't realize this was in reference to fmq, so of course you can't "grab" your finger, as I suggested (That's a test to use when the quilt is on a frame).