When first learning to FMQ, I was mesmerized by all of the beautiful, silky threads available. I soon learned that it works best (for me) to use plain cotton thread for FMQ. My stitching is much smoother. Just keep at it.

We have many quilters in our guild with national acclaim. One of them taught a class for us. The one thing I remember was she said to get a piece of paper and a pencil and do the free motion quilting designs you plan to use over and over on paper, getting the smoothness and rythm on paper first before using the machine

If you are like me, you tense up and make a mess of it.So what I learned to do is relaxe and I hold my piece very loosely and if I sew quickly and move the piece at a moderate speed it seems to work,the main thing is to RELAX.Good luck keep me posted.

Thanks, I'm going to try that one!

You also dropped the feeddogs?? It takes time and practice. I practiced on many small projects before I did a quilt. I read in one of the magazines to practice drawing what you want to do with paper and pencil several times before going to the machine. Don't give up :-D

Yes... it takes loads of practice, but don't give up. It will come! Try using a pencil and just draw on any junk paper. Sometimes that gets your "rhythm" going. I never FMQ without my "Machingers" (sp?)the gloves I like the best. I also use Sharon Schamber's heavy weight circle that just lies on top.

PS. I just added my new Avatar!

A glass of wine. ;) really. A glass of wine always helps me. And don't watch your needle. Look where you are going a few inches in front of the needle. And most important: IT IS THREAD AND FABRIC. IT CAN BE "UNSEWN" AND RESEWN :).

Agree - I found if I couldn't draw it with a pencil on paper, it definatly wasn't going to draw out with the machine. I started practicing to draw on paper until the repetitive designs improved. Then I also drew the disign I wanted on the fabric/quilt and that helped too. This is how I learned to feather. I still have a lot of practice ahead.

You need to move the quilt a bit slower, that seems to help me. I put Big Band music on the CD player and chill out. The Machingers quilters gloves are a big help too. I use a size 90 top stitch needle, sometimes a 100 top stitch needle.
What kind of sewing machine do you have?
Sharon W.

Try using Pledge on the bed of your machine so the sandwich slides easier. Put the pledge on a cloth to apply rather than spraying it on.