There is some good books as well that give you an idea how to transition from one thing to other while on the go. And yes, no matter what, with FMQ, pantographs and the groovy boards, all of it takes practice,

It does take many hours of practice. I didn't feel my FMQ was very good, either. And I wasn't able to spend the time needed to improve it quickly enough. That's one of the reasons for my Qbot purchase. But there are designs, which are easier to learn. Loops are one of them. I've gotten to the point, I can do loops fairly consistently and can manage a spiral or two. I still don't have the knack of feathers or any of the more complicated designs. I leave those to Qbot for now.

Some LAQers practice designs by repeatedly drawing them on a dry erase board. This helps get the motion of the design into your brain. The movement of your writing hand mimics the movement of your hand while guiding the LA.

Keep with it, you will improve. And before long, you'll be an expert. And knowing you're a perfectionist, it's probably not as bad as you're making it out to be. And even if it is, your granddaughter will still love it.

Pam if you join QNN you can watch Linda Taylor videos as many times as you want, also Fons and Porter have Marylin Badger on a lot of their videos. It's on $24 for a year, best money I ever spent! Of course after watching those gals you expect to go to your machine and "just do it" because they make it look so easy! I don't think I'll get good at freehand untill I get a better machine but pantos are really nice and easy to learn. good luck

I don't know what QNN is but I can probably search and find out.

I read somewhere about the dry erase board, I'll check at work and see if there is an old one someone wants to get rid of.

I tried feathers on my practice muslin and whoa... that was worse than I ever thought it could be. :P

This is what I did last night and I could make a whole lot of excuses like... it was dark, but I won't. Sometimes I just couldn't see where the other line of stitching was so I was crossing them. Just basically not being careful enough and maybe I should have drawn them first.

is it perfect? no but it sure looks pretty good, slowing down and making sure that you can see where you are going is important,

lol... It is so far from perfect that perfect is on another quilt, at someone else's house.

I know my granddaughter will like it and I thought last night that I am not going to say a thing about how bad it is. I am teaching her and she is working on a fusible applique quilt all by herself. It would be horrible for me to critique my own work and give her the message that if grandma thinks this is bad, what about her work?

I think it looks good. Don't you want it to look as if you quilted it, or do you think it needs to look like it was done with a computerized quilting machine?

I just finished freemotion quilting some quilt blocks on my home machine....thought they looked pretty good. They aren't anywhere as nice as you have done on this quilt.

I would like to say my fm looks this good -- alas I can't. I'm still hoping I get better.

I think this looks super...especially for a first attempt. KEEP GOING! You are your own worst critic. And you are right...don't critique it for your granddaughter. Let her love it the way it is and also enjoy her own first efforts.

Looks fine by me!

Practice is not a dirty word! I've been LAing for just over 2 years. I'm on my third (or is it fourth) BOLT of muslin. Don't be afraid to use pantos and the rulers. You won't get better if you don't try.