Stitchnripper

you do need a middle. That will give you the best practice opportunity. You can sew batting scraps together. Or devote a square of batting and then put new muslin on top when you fill up the first one. Remember - it’s for practice. You can be free with trying because no one will see it but you. Your machine may not like to go in a certain direction. You will be better able to figure it all out and not have any pressure. Many of us who do FMQ warm up on a practice square before we get to the quilt.

wifeofblacksmith

This is exactly the advice I was looking for! I'm waiting for the arrival of my darning foot. I have several practice sandwiches ready to go and I have a scrap quilt ready before I tackle the baby quilt that started my desire to learn FMQ. The baby isn't due for several months, so I have time to learn!!

pbraun

Tried FMA once in a class but it looked too terrible so I am using rulers to guide my "FMQ". I am focussing on the speed and the stitch length. I made 80 flannel blocks using different rulers. These two utility quilts will be used on our deck and by the fireplace. I am feeling like it will soon be time yo try a meandering stitch. The encouraging words in this thread are helping me to take the plunge. Of course I will practice on scraps first, but I usually need a purpose to stick to it.

CaleyH

I've not done a lot of anything lately, other than cutting all the needed pieces for my next quilt top.

I do volunteer work up at the local Observatory and Nature Center. My last two years has been creating a lower parking lot, and I have about two more weeks of work. The lot is about 150 feet by 60 feet, and I had to do it all by hand, as the foundation doesn't have a lot of money. One reason why they depend on volunteers and donations.

I'm basically the unofficial groundskeeper for the 15 acres they own. I pretty much just work in about a 3 acre area where the observatory is, which seems to be the biggest attraction when it is open. Right now our campus is closed due to the COVID pandemic, and the fact most of our board members, and volunteers are over 65 years of age. Me, approaching 71, and can still run rings around the younger people. :-)

Anyway, I will make a bunch of things about the size of a table runner to practise my FMQing, but I believe I will be doing like pbraun, using rulers and templates to keep my patterns consistent.. I'm also making some plastic patterns I will use to trace, with a a pen that I can erase with an iron. I seem to be fairly good at following the lines I draw. I just have to do a lot of starting and stopping as I go along, so I can get around curves a bit more accurately.

CaleyH

I thought I would pass on what I discovered . This isn't about free motion quilting. It's about quilting with templates.

As most of you know, plexiglass (acrylic) is very slippery, and needs something on the bottom to give it some grip. I tried Omnigrip on the template set I purchased for template quilting, but it just didn't have the grip on a three layer quilt. Does fine when used on rulers when you are cutting thin fabric.

I looked around the internet for something else, but just wasn't satisfied with what was offered. So I thought that maybe the 1/2 inch square hook portion of Velcro might work. I have lots of these little 1/2 inch squares of hook that I used for my astronomy needs. They are about 1/16 inch thick, and have a sticky side. I cut these little squares in four 1/4 inch squares, and applied them to one of my templates on all four corners.

I then placed the template on the quilt sandwich, and moved it around. The hook grips the fabric very well without any slipping, and doesn't harm the fabric. I ended up adding eight 1/4 inch square hooks to each of my templates, and am very happy with how they work.

These hook squares aren't any thicker than what came with one of the templates, which is a strip of rubbery something. Looks like a rubbery substance was applied to fabric, and the other side given some glue.

Just thought I would provide an alternative to all those expensive sheets of grippers that sometimes don't even work

CaleyH

I've been working with my new Baby Lock Jazz 2, trying to do both free motion quilting and template quilting.

After each little bit of work, I would remove the quilt sandwich and look at the back, only to find top thread in the back. This happened every time, and I finally realized it was only happening on the curves. I had kept adjusting the tension to remove the problem, but never could get rid of all of those bottom problems.

I finally browsed around the internet to see what was happening. I discovered that what is happening is called "lashing", which happens when you go around curves too quickly. Solution according to the writer is to slow down on the curves.

Since I don't have a speed adjustment for my machine, I can't just mash the pedal all the way to keep a constant speed, and thusly, only have to concentrate on how fast I move the fabric. This is going to take a lot of practise.

If I can't do two things with my hands like when I have tried to play a musical instrument, I will be stuck with straight line quilting. I've never been able to coordinate my two hands to do two different things at the same time. Had this problem my whole life, other than I finally learned how to touch type, so maybe there is hope if I persist long enough.

Stitchnripper

free motion quilting does take a lot and I mean a lot of practice. As long as you accept that and be patient you will end up improving with all that practice. It doesn’t always depend on the machine. I learned on a dinky mechanical Brother and it did a nice job. The problem in the beginning was me.

mindless

I totally agree with Alyce.
Be nice to yourself.
Do you drive? It's very similar to driving your car.....slow down a bit for the curves, and practice, practice, practice.

CaleyH

Today was a disaster. It wasn't so much me, as the BL Jazz 2 didn't want to keep from breaking the spool thread. No matter how carefully I threaded the upper thread, it would snag, and break.

On top of that, no matter how well I adjust the tension, I still cannot eliminate the eyelashing, even when I go slow. Yesterday I thought things were solved, then both of these things cropped up.

I've put the Baby Lock on the shelf, and installed my Singer into the same position that the BL had resided in. For now, I am just going to be satisfied with straight line quilting. I will map out my line positions, then use the walking foot to do the quilting.

I actually had better luck with FMQing with my Singer, even though I couldn't dial down the stitch length to zero. The problem that made me purchase the BL was the throat space. Guess I will just be happy with the Singer until I can solve the problems with the BL, if I ever do.

Whenever we come out of our COVID pandemic, maybe I can to down to Calimesa, where they sell BL's and ask for some help, even if I have to pay for it.

mindless

Bummer!
I wonder if your Jazz just doesn't like that particular thread. Some machines are picky that way....