quilttiger

Great advice on this post! Another idea is to make small lap quilts for children...there are a lot of charities that will accept them nationally such as Project Linus or locally such as shelters for women and children. This way you get to practice, practice and try different designs, etc. and have something to show for it.

mjhaess

It take a long long time to master it if ever.....Patience is the secret.....And doing it over and over....

SusanSusan33

I just stippled part of a wall hanging last night after a 12 year lapse in quilting. I DID practice first, but if I look too hard, I can see sooo many errors.

I have to remind myself that when it's hanging on the wall, you'll never be able to see the problems.

tessagin

Practice by making little quilts for your pets or friends and family pets. That way nothing is really wasted.

sweetlummi

I just go one of those not to long ago. Man it is driving me nut to . At first I could not get a good hold on the quilt. Then a friend told me about the glove . Now to get some thing that look good like the pro do lol. I think that going to take for ever I have done 1 and this one I'm working on now is with the glove . But still you hear the machine going fast and for me my hand wont to go fast to. So a lot to learn still just learning . I have just made 8 ever time I do one there is some thing els to learn

quilterpurpledog

There are so many great suggestions here. I enjoy looking at the shared experiences of others and see where I fit in along the shared process. I would like to add a couple of ideas. I use scraps of rubberized shelf liner to move my quilt along-one under the fingers of each hand. They move nicely and I can just move my hand off if I need to make adjustments in anything-no gloves to take off or put on. I have also made practice pieces with geometric figures on them to analyze which directions I sew best-shows where I need to work on. For instance I sew backwards better than going to my left-so I practice going to the left. I also find that if I move the quilt into my lap from the flat surface behind the machine I have the best stitches because I don't have the drag of the bulk that is in my lap trying to keep tension off of it as I lift it to the level of the desk top. I like to compare the quality of my newest project to those I have done before.

Holice

OK. What is happening is normal until you gain control. Try this. Needle down when you stop. Readjust your hands to get control of the piece. Hold it and let the needle go up and down a couple times until you feel you have control and then start moving out. Dont be timid about getting the machine to your comfortable speed before you move out. The problem is you are moving the quilt too soon and the first stitch is jumping. Nothing will happen if you just quilt in place a couple or three stitches. And then when you are quilting make sure the machine stays at a constant speed.
Also...........the important things is to learn your comfortable balance between the speed of the machine and the speed of your hands. Find your comfortabe speed and then adjust movement of hands accordingly.
To do then.....take the thread out and just hit the pedle until you feel comfortable with the sound and speed of the machine and then adjust the hand movement. When you stop be sure to have needle down and down and don't move hands until the machine stops. And as you are quilting "avoid dog paddling" - that is trying to keep the quilt moving...when you feel you need to move hands or loosing contol of the quilt......stop, needle down reajust and then continue as above.
Practice, Practice, Practice is necessary for good machine quilting but you have to practice correctly otherwise you are making the same mistake over and over.

QuiltE

QPDog ... you gave me an idea ... maybe take the rubberized shelf liner and make little mitts, just to fit over my fingers (not the whole hand). Easy on/off, and somewhat on the fingers. I know if I had pieces, I'd probably end up sewing them into the quilt!!

Holice

cut fingers from rubber gloves

I believe most psoblems are moving the quilts too soon after machine starts.

cpcarolyn

I am still working on my quilting. Hope to one day be good enought to do a whole cloth quilt.