The Best way to learn FMQ on a DSM
 

I have learned to piece, match seams, needle turn appliqué, and paper piece but I need to learn to FMQ. I have to learn to FMQ myself. I can send a few quilts out but not everything.

What is the best way to learn. Book, craftsy class(which one), live class? What is going to help? I doodle designs all the time, I watch u-tube videos, bounced between cotton and poly threads, etc. I even tried to quilt from the side of the machine instead of the front. I modified my darning foot, bought a clear foot. I have a babylock quilters choice machine which was expensive so it is not the quality of the machine.

i tried the supreme slider(did nothing for me), use gloves, got the bobbin genie, messed with tension and speed, tried stencils(even worse results).

I got the Nancy Chong DVD on needle turn and it worked beautifully and I learned how to needle turn applique really well. I practiced a lot and watched the video at least 7 times but it worked. I need something for FMQ.

if you are Great at FMQ on a DSM, how did you get there?

This is my New Years resolution. I don't want/need shortcuts. I need to know what sources helped you learn and develop your skills. TIA

I recommend to keep practicing. The biggest hurdle is getting the machine speed/hand coordination part down...and practice is the only way you will do that.

I took one class a few years ago...then I just practiced. It was a while before I was willing to take the chance on a "real" quilt...but I finally did. The more I do, the better I get. I practice a little before EVERY quilt. Early on, I did not do well with stippling, but did ok with loops and swirls. So once I mastered those, I practiced stippling more. I am much better at that now, but I still don't care to do stippling. I like the look, but find it boring to do on large areas. Also, when I first started, I used thread that matched the back and blended in more on the front so my mistakes weren't so noticeable. Now I am not afraid of contrasting thread.

Loops and swirls are more forgiving than straight lines or large designs that you might not be able to do smoothly without repositioning your hands. Is there a design that you think you do well? If so, try to master that one then try others. Another thing is to take a fabric with a large print and practice going around the designs.

My favorite foot is a spring FMQ foot. I love the Machinger's gloves best...I never quilt without them. I also like the supreme slider, but an inexpensive substitute can work also. I didn't think the bobbin washers made a difference in my machine (my bobbins are contoured, so they don't make full contact with the washer). I prefer not to mark on a quilt, so mostly I either totally freehand it, or use golden threads paper or sulky solvy if I want a more consistent pattern. When I am following a drawn pattern, I am rarely right on the line...but once the lines are gone, who will know? Be sure the weight of your quilt is supported, the drag will affect your stitching too.

Good luck!

Just start experimenting. Leah Day has been my savior. I love her blog. She has tons of free videos and a craftsy class. I adore craftsy. There are multiple classes about fmq. But really the main thing is practice.

Practice, practice, practice and then practice some more! All those tools will only help after you put in enough practice.

I'm trying the same. One difference is I have a Pfaff 2170 and just got the Brother 1500s. The Pfaff and the Brother both have vertical bobbins. That means it's easier to adjust bobbin tension. The Pfaff had no way to control foot pressure which drove me nuts. See what your Babylock says about FMQ. Some of the BL embroidery machines had an extra washer type thing they added when you embroidered. Might have been to keep the bobbin from rattling around at high speed. I've seen posts about washers for quilting on this forum. I'm thinking this was for drop in bobbins.

Make another post about Babylock and ask how they set up. Brother has the same machines, so either one might help.

I had to find a book on FMQ that broke it down. I was a graphic designer so I have to look at it in terms of digitizing. Piece by piece. I also don't like videos. I'd rather have a book. Easier to mark a place in a book or printed material. Like you, I can sew, I have no trouble with color, I like to mess around with techniques so taking a class is hard for me. I took one on potholders just to learn how you bind the things. All the basics were boring but the binding helped. I was trying to put binding on lefthanded by using righthanded methods. The one printout I would find is troubleshooting the problems. Like why your bobbin thread is appearing on the top, eyelashes, etc, so you can refer to it while you are practicing instead of a trying to watch a video at the same time - or relying on memory.

I also prefer to quilt as you go, so I am not dealing with huge chunks of fabric.

I have other shortcomings I might never overcome (I like having my nose right in what I'm doing) so I'll simply have to live with what I can do. I might always have to mark to keep stuff even. Like they said, practice. But first check with your dealer or other BL owners about setting up the machine. Like my Pfaff not liking thick seams at times, your BL just might not like something else. You wind up beating your head against the wall for something that you have no control over. It's just the way the machine works. You will get there.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I am going to make a ton of Christmas placemats or other placemats from scraps and work on those. I get so stressed with moving large quilts around. When I grab a small scrap with batting and backing to use to warm up and adjust the tension, I fly with great or at least good quilting. The minute the big quilt goes under, I tense up and can't gracefully move the quilt. I have the tables around to support and a sew ezi table so the machine is flush with the table. I guess I will have to start much smaller and move gradually to bigger quilts.

What is it specifically that you don't like about your FMQ?

I learned from the Leah Day videos online.

It is a struggle to move the quilt through. I am great at breaking threads too. I have trouble moving it smoothly through the machine

I was going to recommend the place mat idea - see that you just posted that. Placemats, table toppers, runners - small, but useful objects. I don' like to practice on practice fabric - just to practice I like a product when I'm done. You've been given great advice and you have made the perfect start. Specialize in one style until you have it down then move to another style. Build up your list of things you can do happily.

Now just do it! :)

Same here! I've made four FMQ quilts now, two baby and two lap size. I practiced and practiced on several scrap pieces before I attempted a finished product. My first finished product was a table runner. The gloves are extremely important.

I read articles, practiced on small pieces, watched videos, practiced on a few more small things, meandered through a few baby quilts... It wasn't until I FMQd a large appliqued wall hanging with a lot of areas to quilt that I really GOT it. There was no way out of that but through, and ever since my FMQ has been hugely improved. Something finally clicked.

So that is my advice: when you've hit the wall, commit to something big that has already taken a lot of time and effort to create. If you need the pressure, that will do it.

I used Harriet Hargrave's book on machine quilting to teach myself. Made up half a dozen practice sandwiches for starters. Got decent with FMQ that way, *but* I hated moving quilts around to do it. Never got over that, even for baby quilts.

I finally purchased a used Voyager 17 and Hinterberg frame (a relatively inexpensive way to start frame quilting, moving the machine instead of the quilt) and love it! For me, it is so much easier than trying to move the quilt around. I just quilted a queen-sized quilt for my sister in a week and it was *fun*! Just the month before I got the frame, it took me a week to FMQ a crib-sized quilt on my DSM and it was drudgery and tension (no pun intended) the whole way.

I'm thinking some people are suited to one approach, and some to the other. I'm definitely one who prefers to move the machine!

Leah Day has a great website...after about 53 quilts I bought a pair of gloves! The key word is'Practice'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need to just jump in with both feet and just start doing it.
You need to take the pressure off your foot, drop or cover the feed dogs, make sure the top tension is set right to give you best stitches, wear gloves, I use garden gloves with rubber nubs. No way would I ever try it without them.
Like others have said just practice. I just do a meander, love the looks and love doing it. I keep a small sandwich and quilt on it to make sure the stitches are to my liking, then start on the quilt. Good luck.

FMQing is also on my list of things to work on this year. I'm making placemats==seemed like a good place to start. Also tablerunners.

One thing I had to come to terms with is that my quilts will never look like they are long armed. I have never sent one out & do my own quilting on my Janome 1600P. I have practiced lots & lots and do better with FMQ rather than trying to follow a stencil. I've also learned how to use my walking foot to do curves & have had good luck with that. I also use Machinger gloves- a big help. Check out Sally Terry's book "Hooked on Feathers"- it is a great method for quilting on a DSM.

It is great to practice but after a period of time you should just jump in and try to relax and enjoy the progress you will get better. I would also use fine thread that matches the fabric

Why not? I think they can.

I'm also a self-taught / book-taught quilter, and it took me a while to get up the nerve to put the cool FMQ foot my husband had bought for me months previously to use. I'm not good with videos; I prefer a book or written explanation, and I did some reading about the technicalities of FMQ. But for me, the thing that really made it happen...was DOING it.

I just took a deep breath, threw together some orphan blocks, and started quilting. I had done many in-the-ditch projects to that point, but this was a new feed-dogs-down adventure. Let's just say that my dogs are now the proud owners of several wonkily-quilted crate pads! It took many jerky curves, widely varying stitch sizes, and backing eyelashes before I got my hands, the movement of the quilt, and the machine's tension all in coordination. Now I consider myself adept enough at FMQ that for the latest project I went "fancy" and made this water quilting pattern on this blue quilt.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...28665392ec.jpg

I've FMQ quilts of all sizes on my DM; it is much easier with the machine set into the table top to create a large, flat surface. I use the slick covering under the quilt, but I haven't tried the gloves you guys are talking about; I'll have to give those a shot.

In short, just keep quilting and you'll get better and better despite yourself'!

--Q

I have gotten so much better after going to a Ricky Tims presentaton. The things that helped are: make a large surface to hold the quilt. (I use a table to the left and my ironing board behind my sewing table), puddle, instead of roll and concentrate on a small area, "one pot holder at a time". I have managed to fm quilt a queen sized quilt. It isn't perfect quilting, but it isn't bad either. Have fun, relax...don't forget to relax or your shoulders will hurt, big time. I won't quilt without my gloves.

If your breaking thread a lot I suspect that you are moving the quilt too fast.

My guess is that if you are OK with smaller pieces, but not with larger quilts - you are intimidated by the size of the larger quilt so you try to move it faster.

Concentrate on a smaller area of the larger quilt.
Puddle (not roll) the quilt in an area around the area you are going to quilt. The puddle should be "loose".
Look at a 12" square of the quilt and NO MORE. Concentrate on just that 12".
Don't try to quilt more than 12" without having to stop and rearrange the "puddle".

Q - I couldn't agree more! Practicing on small pieces is good, but eventually you just have to GO for it. I'm most comfortable just doing a loop-de-loop design.

The water effect you did is terrific! Laura

Keep practicing...play some relaxing music while you are..not too slow...not too fast...read Diane Gaudynski's blog...she is an expert quilter. She only uses Neutragena hand lotion while quilting...no gloves. I like using the tips off of rubber gloves just on 2 fingers on each hand...that is what Sue Nickles does...another expert quilter. If you can take a class, or have someone help you that would be good, but otherwise keep practicing and reading about quilting...you will get it!

I am not there yet either but I would not have come as far as I have without watching Leah Day. I will never achieve her level of success but my stipple is looking better. I do have the bobbin washer, gloves and mat. I use the bobbin washer for everything not just FMQ. I don't seem to have any thread breaks. I can do without the mat. I do not find it that helpful. The Machinger gloves are really great. I practice on small squares and then cover them up with nice fabric and put binding around them and make nice potholders. I also make a lot of placemats out of charm squares and practice different types of FMQ in each square. I also bind these...this has helped improve my binding technique tremendously. Just keep practicing. I also like straight line and SID quilting on many things. Hang in there.

All great suggestions. I can do a passable job of FMQ on a dinky mechanical Brother DSM. It takes a lot of practice and when you get "in the groove" you will know it, with machine speed and the speed of your hands moving the quilt. I still don't get there all the time, but I sure do know when I do!

Patsy Thompson and Leah Day videos online. Both are wonderful instructors.

I am also just learning to FMQ. I made each one of my daughters a lap quilt for Christmas didn't get them quilted yet . I am working on the first one and it is far from perfect but I see the improvement with each section I do. The speed and stitch hand coordination is a big thing. I have found that using gloves make a big difference and keeping the quilt even as you quilting also makes a difference. Remember slow and steady wins the race!

First I think you need to figure out what works for you as far as supplies. It's a learning process. I have purchased items that make fmq easier (or so they say); some worked and some have not.

I agree with the previous poster that you need to keep the weight of the quilt off of the area that you are quilting on. You need to break the big quilt down into manageable working areas and just focus on the area. I fmq a king size quilt with my domestic sewing machine; some parts of it was not fun because of the bulk of the quilt. Once I got out from the center, it was fine. I just wanted to challenge myself and be able to say that I did quilt a king size quilt.

And I have read and agree with that you should practice more on quilt projects that just sandwich pieces. That being said, I always have lots of sandwich pieces to warm up on or try a new idea before I go to my quilt.

The last piece of advice is to breathe and relax when quilting. People get so tense about the quilting process and the shoulders start to rise. Also, don't forget to take breaks....get up, walk around, stretch.
Good luck!

practice! Practice! practice! Speed and movement are the keys. Try practicing on donation quilts if you do those. And I've just found that if I make an extra block of my quilt I can practice and see what might work.

Just yesterday I bought myself a gift, it was the "Beyond Basic Machine Quilting" class by Craftsy. Ann Peterson is the instructor for this class. I have 'watched' some of it while I was sewing strips and pressing. She does talk about thread, tension, fmq foot, work surface, how to sandwich, just info to be setup correctly. In this class you do a wall hanging (could be made bigger after into quilt size) and it looks really complicated but Ann really breaks it down into basic steps and she goes right though all the quilting with you, What I like is I can watch this over and over as many times as I need until Im really good at it. It is all done at your own pace. If I have question, I just post it right beside the video and Ann will personally respond with an answer.

Im really excited to start with class and with Ann's support whenever I need it, I can't go wrong! She also has a class about how to quilt a king size on a dsm, might have to get that one next!

Hands and brain are the most important tools in FMQ.... Only lots of practice will help you get better. I suggest practicing on small stuff before you have to wrangle a big quilt around. Placemats, hotpads, mug rugs, and then work up to baby quilts. You'll be doing great before you know it.

Practice practice practice. I took a class at a LQS that was worth it's weight in gold. She had us playing with fat quarter size quilt sandwiches. We started off drawing on our sandwich and tracing, graduating into finding fabrics with great designs in them and going over them, then running off the fabric swatch onto our fat quarter sandwich. That was probably when the light bulb lit for me. Drawing helps considerable. As for using the machine, you have to conquer the fear and put some speed into the foot petal. It's consistancy makes or breaks free motion quilting. I actually use my little Bernina more than my longarm now when it comes to quilting.

Actually, I learned by making a jacket--quilted the pieces and then put the jacket together after trimming to fit the pattern. It was not hard that way and then I quilted a queen-sized quilt.

I practiced and practiced and practiced. I then discovered the Quilt Halo, and now I think I'm where I need to be!

First off, I'm not answering because I'm great. :) I've FMQ'd two quilts so far on my Brother PQ1500S, and I'm happy with how they turned out, as long as no one looks too closely. I took Angela Walters' Craftsy class, Machine Quilting in Negative Space. That was very helpful. I also just bought her book on machine quilting. Both very useful, but they're both more about design motifs than about the actual process of FMQ. In other words, she doesn't really give advice on whether to drop feed dogs, how to maneuver the quilt, etc. It's really all about swirls and circles and pebbles and lines. I highly recommend her class, but I don't know if that's what you're looking for or not.

I'm going to follow this thread because I'd love to learn more, too!

Thks great information ... A 2013 goal ..

I just purchased a practise tool from LaLiLa Designs, it included gloves, white board brush the quick trainer drawing tool -
holder for pens along with training patterns (which are reuseable) and instructions. I also took a couple of the craftsy
classes, but was going through so much fabric, decided the LaLiLa Designs will be my next way to practise. You can check it out at http://www.laliladesign.com

I agree with calicojoan and the foot pedal....I took a class on FM and had trouble with it until the teacher told us "slow hand, fast foot." In other words, move the quilt piece slowly, but speed up the foot peda quite a bit. Wow what a difference. I never would have known. I still have some problems, but not going to give up till I conquer it and really get relaxed with it all the time, not just now and then....Good luck!!!!!

While I'm no expert, I do quilt smaller projects--although they seem to be growing--did a twin size spread for my DGS last Fall. I totally agree that the Leah Day videos/website is a must. I have it marked as a favorite on my computer so I can pull it up for each quilt. Also, from a class I took for Long arm quilting, I use a white board and dry erase marker to "practice" my design before I thread the machine.

I've found that using a higher # thread (a 40 or 50 wt instead of the 30 I usually piece with) and a larger needle (a 14 or 16) seems to stop the skipped stitch and thread shredding that sometimes happens.

Getting the hang of the speed is what is hardest and most important--remember that your machine should be working a bite faster than you are so that curves don't get "eyelashes", etc. And if you are tense or tired, it seems your speed gets more erratic, so take a break every once in awhile (some people recommend some wine before quilting--doesn't help me!).

The 2nd hardest thing is moving a fairly large project through the machine--having tables surrounding your machine to hold the quilt level helps some on this, but sometimes you just have to roll or squeeze the quilt in the harp space in the machine and work slowly to keep it moving without pull.

And like everyone else is saying--practice, practice, practice--even then you'll get somethings that just aren't quilt show quality--the idea about placemates or table toppers is excellent. Good luck--I've found that I like the quilting process too, and have decided to get a long arm in 2013!

I just signed up for www.pileofabrics.com skill builder block of the month. There will be two blocks per month for 10 months beginning Jan 17th. Each block will focus on a different technique. This is a QAYG so there will be free motion quilting on each block. Even if you are not crazy about the completed quilt it is well worth your time to do the monthly quilting. It is FREE! Here is a link to the page: http://www.pileofabric.com/post/2012...k-of-the-month