dgmoby

Stippling, or any type of FMQ design, is similiar on a regular machine as it is on a longarm, thus alot of the advice is the same. Here's how I learned:

1) Practice with pencil and paper 20 minutes a day. This will 'train' your small muscles...and it WORKS!
2) Practice on the machine, going 1/2 speed more or less, wherever you're comfortable, 20 minutes a day. Really WORKS!
3) Listen to music to help relax - this works too! Or a book on tape, or TV. Music seems to help me the most.
4) If you make a mistake, don't worry - just keep on going. Don't stop, just keep going. There are no perfect stipples and if you look at the 100,000 winners, they have points or not great curves in their stipples too! (I did look, and it was true!)
5) Keep that Day 1 practice so you can see you're own improvement. You'll be surprised that in as little as a week, you'll see a massive improvement if you do these things. This is true, and I use this today for longarming freehand now - so that I can remind myself this practice does pay off when learning something new.
6) Think 'dog bones'. That's how I learned. Make the ends of a dog bone over and over - and you've got a great stipple. I had the hardest time making a 'stipple' until I heard this, then the shapes made sense. I can draw a dog bone!
7) If you cannot FMQ at all and stipple seems too hard, that's really OK. Start with loops! It's easy, fast, cute and you're learning more than you think you are!
8) Some people simply decide stippling isn't for them, and that's all right. There's lots of beautiful patterns. But don't give up too early, and stay with the practicing. That's the only way to learn any quilting - practice. No matter what pattern you desire to learn, you will always be required to practice, except straight lines (but these are hard on a longarm!).

I do hope this helps. If you have a specific questions, please do not hesitate to ask - we'll try to help. It really is all about the practicing and doing it daily so that you and your muscles don't forget. Do it at red lights, at the dr. office, everywhere! I keep a pad and pencil in my purse since I'm always learning new patterns. And I have to practice. I was surprised, myself, at how big of a difference this really made - and it is what will make you successful at any machine quilting - or hand-quilting, for that matter :)

Debbie in Austin

jgriinke

Don't give up on free motion quilting! It does take practice, but worth it. Make sure you have your feed dogs down. The other things metioned sure help. Don't make your quilt sandwich too big. That way, you can hold on to both sides easily. I have a pair of gardening gloves from Menards that I use.
They have the little gripper dots on them. Much cheaper. Don't try to make your stipple too small, start with a bigger design. Better yet, try writing your name. You will be amazed at how good your name looks. That's because you have written your name a million times. The brain memory thing does work. If you have a dry erase board, practice on that. Just keep at it. I have taught in my guild to FMQ and even those that haven't had much success, have gotten much better with practice.
Just keep up the trying and practice. You can give the practice sandwiches to a local animal shelter for animal beds. Or, use one color thread one day, then use a different color the next. It gets kind of messy looking, but then you aren't using lots of fabric.
It all takes time.

Maire

Candace gave the best advice!! I tried free motion & stippling at various times for years, always awful & hated it. But several yrs ago I saw the Supreme slider demoed, tired it & just like that my brain caught on!! I wore out 2 sliders having so much fun with stippling & then realized I didn't need it anymore. Now I stipple almost all my quilts (I do a lot of charity quilts), put on an audio book & stipple away, I love it & it is fast & fun. Now I can even fm feathers, hearts, circles & loops.[/quote]

Opps, when I reread my comment I realized it sounded as though Candice's advice was better than the other advice, I didn't mean it that way, I meant she gave very good advice & all the advice given is great.Once FM clicks in your brain, & that is what it does so your hands & brain work together FM & stippling is really fun.

Flying_V_Goddess

For me top stitching anything with a curve in it is very hard. I've only been able to accomplish quilting a design with curves once, but it was with a quilted book binder instead of a full quilt and that had its difficulties.

patdesign

Have you seen any demos, they really help. :-D

jsmith3151

I too do not like to stipple, but after 10 years of quilting I am pushing myself to do so. You only get better with practice. Gentle meandering is the best to practice and at least 1 glass of wine. As my teachers taught me - "don't forget to breathe" and you can only work at it in short intervals. My recent attempts, I do not consider great, but the rest of the world is impressed. I am always harder on myself with what I do.

qwkslver

I haven't tried it yet but it looks hard to me too. I figure mine won't be all the same. I have used a decorative stitch. I entertained the thoughts of buying a quilting machine but I have no clue how to use one and they are pretty expensive.

sculpyfan

i tried last night with the auto switched on and then off. I broke 2 needles then quit.

reginalovesfabric

I stipple on my quilting machine and I have found that you need rhythm, try not to go fast and then slow up...keep up the same pace. I thought my stippling was improving and the judge at the pinebelt quilt show said my quilting was satisfactory....mmmmm

Jennifer22206

I've just started trying to stippled and I feel like I killed one of my projects. It'll become a dog mat or something. I was so frustrated I started to cry. I've done all the practice block, went through bout 30 before I started and yea.. I need to practice