Help with FMQ please
06-01-2010, 05:07 AM
#12
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Sturbridge, Ma
Posts: 3,992
Free Motion is you are free from the control of the feed dogs of the machine which caused the stitches to go back and forth.
Lowering the fee dogs allows you to move freely in any directions or pattern you want.
Now if you have never done Free Motion, I recomment you do some major practice first. It is not easy until you get the hang of it or the feel of free movement. Your hands are controlling the length of the stitch as the stitch mechanism of the machine has been disengaged.
My suggestion is for you to sandwich about a 24" practice piece.
Divide it into 4 sections. In one section do motifs like "e" or loops, in another do meandering which is almost the same but you don't cross the lines. in the next section do some forms that might look like waves with sharp points and in the 4th section do some long wavy lines - not straight but wavy and then end up writing your name.
The most important part is learning to feel a balance between the motion of your hands and the speed of the machine.
The faster the machine and slower hand movement the smaller stitch. The slower the machine and faster the hand gets long stitches. Therefore, you need to practice to get a balance between the two to produce a stitch the length about what you would regularily sew.
You can either mark or do a free all over design. However, the design should product a consistent density over all the quilt.
It is often easier to quilt in the ditch around large sections and then do your fm design in the area filling the space evenly and consistently.
There are many quilting designs(stencils) made to be continuous so you don't have to start and stop. Check out some of the stencil companies web pages (www.quiltingstencils.com) is one.
My three rules for achieving good fmo is:
1. Good flat working area.
2. Grip on the fingers (gloves, tips off rubber gloves or Tacky Finger) the stuff used to sort money in the bank.
3. Practice to find your balance between the speed of the machine and the movement of your hands.
4. Go slow.
5. Never leave the hands off the work while the machine is in motion. If you need to move your hands to get better grip or control, stop the machine (needle down) reposition and then start up again.,
When starting bring bobbin thread to top and hold it. Let the needle go up and down couple times and then move out.
If you stop, then needle down and reposition.
When you come to the end hold with needle down and rock back and forth just a little to fix the end of the stitch.
To get good sharp points in your design - let the needle go up and down in position a couple times before moving on. This prevents rounded points.
Guess this is enough.......remember........musicians don't get to the concert stage without practice, practice, practice. Same is true for satisfactory free motion quilting.
Lowering the fee dogs allows you to move freely in any directions or pattern you want.
Now if you have never done Free Motion, I recomment you do some major practice first. It is not easy until you get the hang of it or the feel of free movement. Your hands are controlling the length of the stitch as the stitch mechanism of the machine has been disengaged.
My suggestion is for you to sandwich about a 24" practice piece.
Divide it into 4 sections. In one section do motifs like "e" or loops, in another do meandering which is almost the same but you don't cross the lines. in the next section do some forms that might look like waves with sharp points and in the 4th section do some long wavy lines - not straight but wavy and then end up writing your name.
The most important part is learning to feel a balance between the motion of your hands and the speed of the machine.
The faster the machine and slower hand movement the smaller stitch. The slower the machine and faster the hand gets long stitches. Therefore, you need to practice to get a balance between the two to produce a stitch the length about what you would regularily sew.
You can either mark or do a free all over design. However, the design should product a consistent density over all the quilt.
It is often easier to quilt in the ditch around large sections and then do your fm design in the area filling the space evenly and consistently.
There are many quilting designs(stencils) made to be continuous so you don't have to start and stop. Check out some of the stencil companies web pages (www.quiltingstencils.com) is one.
My three rules for achieving good fmo is:
1. Good flat working area.
2. Grip on the fingers (gloves, tips off rubber gloves or Tacky Finger) the stuff used to sort money in the bank.
3. Practice to find your balance between the speed of the machine and the movement of your hands.
4. Go slow.
5. Never leave the hands off the work while the machine is in motion. If you need to move your hands to get better grip or control, stop the machine (needle down) reposition and then start up again.,
When starting bring bobbin thread to top and hold it. Let the needle go up and down couple times and then move out.
If you stop, then needle down and reposition.
When you come to the end hold with needle down and rock back and forth just a little to fix the end of the stitch.
To get good sharp points in your design - let the needle go up and down in position a couple times before moving on. This prevents rounded points.
Guess this is enough.......remember........musicians don't get to the concert stage without practice, practice, practice. Same is true for satisfactory free motion quilting.
06-01-2010, 05:10 AM
#13
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Sturbridge, Ma
Posts: 3,992
One more thing I forgot.
If you were "lucky" and had elementary school penmanship....remember the motion the teacher insisted on.
You need to be free and loose in your hand movements in free motion because the work should stay in basically the same position and your hands go right left, up and down. The work should pivot unless you need to reposition it for better visability and access to the area you are quilting.
If you were "lucky" and had elementary school penmanship....remember the motion the teacher insisted on.
You need to be free and loose in your hand movements in free motion because the work should stay in basically the same position and your hands go right left, up and down. The work should pivot unless you need to reposition it for better visability and access to the area you are quilting.
06-01-2010, 06:23 AM
#14
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 1,021
thank you so much. It did some practicing and then actually started without marking, as all I do is adding flowers in each corner of the block. The blocks have different shaped Applications on it so it would not have made sense to mark, every free corner is slightly different.
It is going quite well, my biggest problem at the moment is that the thread is blending in so much that I have a hard time to see where I am..............and the machine is quite hot, so I gave both of us a break.
Going through all my needles I found that Schmetz universal 90/14 have the biggest needle eye for the thread and so far I just had breakage from the bobbin thread
It is going quite well, my biggest problem at the moment is that the thread is blending in so much that I have a hard time to see where I am..............and the machine is quite hot, so I gave both of us a break.
Going through all my needles I found that Schmetz universal 90/14 have the biggest needle eye for the thread and so far I just had breakage from the bobbin thread
06-02-2010, 12:56 PM
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 3,877
Originally Posted by Pollyv9
I use topstitching needs most of the time for FMQ and have to make myself remember that just because my JUKI stitches 1500spm I don't have to go that fast...especially arouond curves. I think the speed creates the eyelashes more than tension.
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