I've only done 2 quilts on my DSM, I'm 5'5. What made a differance was wearing gloves. I bought some lightweight garden gloves with a rubber palm and fingers. You can also buy these at the LQS. Getting good grip helped so much.

I think your height shouldn't matter if you have the sewing machine and your chair at the right height. I FMQ several king sized quilts on a small Janome with a 5-6" harp space (I'm 5'7") . It was awful until I realized my chair was too low and my hands weren't parallel to the machine. When I fixed that it was much easier.

Gloves do help and you have to have something to support the quilt or you'll just be fighting the process the entire way.

I'm about 5'7" or 5'8" and I love FMQ! I would much rather quilt than piece and have often resorted to buying tops on eBay so that I've got something to quilt.

I used to forget to breathe - I'd get hot and sweaty and my shoulders would just burn while I was fighting that quilt. It took quite a while to get over that, but now I really love quilting.

First, I set up my machine and the quilt so that the weight and bulk of the quilt weren't fighting me - no more big "logs" of quilt dragging and pulling toward the floor.

I have my sewing machine cabinet backed up to a large table and I have a folding table tucked under the wing of the cabinet on the left side so that the weight of the quilt is supported all around. The whole quilt is piled up loosely on the tables and under the arm of the machine, and pulled smooth and flat in the area around the needle.

When you're in the middle of a king-size or queen-size quilt, this is hard work, so fortunately it doesn't last long. I start in the middle and work outward so that I get the hardest part done first and so that any "ease" in the fabric has a chance to get quilted out before I get to the outside edges.

Then I found that you can also apply the borders and quilt them *after* you've already quilted the main center part of the quilt - not having borders eliminates some of the bulk that has to be pushed through the arm. Every little bit helps when you're quilting in the middle of a large quilt.

I don't get that tension in the shoulders and neck that I used to get - I think that disappeared about the time that I slowed the machine down and quit trying to sew at jackrabbit speed. The tension was coming from feeling out of control and not knowing where I was going, next.

Now, I practice on a Dry Erase board over and over - when I can "autopilot" through a design and cover the board with it without thinking about what to do next, I'm ready to sew the design.

That alone took a huge amount of stress out of FMQ.

Feeling as if the design is going to flow out of the needle without my having to think about it was a huge turning point in really starting to enjoy the process. :)

thepolyparrot-how about we sent all our tops to you? LOL

that's what I'm screaming! lol :lol:
you sure make it sound like there's hope for some of us! :thumbup:

I'm 5'7" and use my domestic sewing machine to free motion quilt too. i always get sore shoulder and neck muscles if i do a lot of fmq or just piecing.

You know, I did consider doing that - volunteering to quilt for someone else.

That's about the time I discovered vintage quilt tops on eBay and craigslist.

All this fabric and I'm buying someone else's UFO's. :oops:

I am starting to think that height could be a factor here. It's all well and good to tell someone to raise your chair so your shoulders or arms are flat on the sewing service, but if that raises you short little legs up off the floor you can't reach the foot pedal-LOL! I have my chair as high as I can get w/out my feet being off the floor, the only alternative I can think of is to get my DH to cut a few inches off the legs of my sewing table. Sounds a bit drastic but I think it may work. I think some of my other troubles are coming from a bad back (5 surgeries to date) and a bad shoulder(2 surgeries and waiting on a cortisone shot). I already use gloves and yes I find they help a lot, but are not the end all and be all of FMQ.

I have the same problem you do with not being able to reach the foot pedal. I put a huge yellow pages phone book underneath it and now it is great! I wish I had a sewing table that my machine could sit down in but, alas...too expensive!

I'm 5'5" and FMQ on my domestic Janome with a 9" bed space, too.