I am not there yet either but I would not have come as far as I have without watching Leah Day. I will never achieve her level of success but my stipple is looking better. I do have the bobbin washer, gloves and mat. I use the bobbin washer for everything not just FMQ. I don't seem to have any thread breaks. I can do without the mat. I do not find it that helpful. The Machinger gloves are really great. I practice on small squares and then cover them up with nice fabric and put binding around them and make nice potholders. I also make a lot of placemats out of charm squares and practice different types of FMQ in each square. I also bind these...this has helped improve my binding technique tremendously. Just keep practicing. I also like straight line and SID quilting on many things. Hang in there.