sewin'sam

There is no such thing as a 'dumb question'! Free motion quilting is when you lower the feed dogs & control the fabric with your hands & the speed of the machine. It is tricky & takes practice. :evil: You do not have to have a quilting machine but you must have the ability to lower the feed dogs & have the quilting/darning foot. It is grnerally used to stitch designs on a quilt or anything that you have made such as place mats, wall hangings, etc. Go to "about.com" then go to quiltingit is a great site for all levels of quilters. Good luck if you decide it's something you want to do! :D

The SHADOW

:wink: You can also cover the feed dogs with a cardboard or a plastic template piece with a hole cut in the middle. I began with the cardboard and I have no trouble with the plastic but did when I used the CB ,Now I have a couple of machines that drop the feed dogs but still use my little singer with a piece of Plastic it does just as good. :wink:

GailG

OK, so what's an air marker??? :oops:

Comment about the feed dogs -- It seem somewhere, maybe Sewing with Nancy or on Simply Quilts, someone said that if the feed dogs can't be lowered, to set the stitch at zero and the feed dogs won't move. Was I dreaming or does anyone know if this is possible? Would it be possible to do free motion over the "dogs" if they aren't moving? Just wondering. Will have to try it when I get to the machine.

sewin'sam

1st...."air markers" are marking pens, usually purple, that disappear after a certain length of time. If you want to speed up getting rid of the marks, just spray with water. They also come with a blue on one end but the blue must be removed with water. It depends on the fabric on how long the marks stay, sometimes they are gone b4 I can sew on them! Other times they last a couple of days. They cost around #3.50 but last a long time.
2nd......If you can't lower your feed dogs, you can buy a 'plate' usually metal that fits over your feed dogs. Then you can free motion quilt on your machine. That works well. I mark my patterns for free motion quilting with the markers (unless it is a stipple or other 'all-over' pattern, then I can try to stay on the lines! I'm not great at it but I'm getting better! Good luck! :?