I'm watching this thread with interest as I'm a complete novice at FMQ :shock: . Thanks for all the great tips - another one I read, if you're so inclined, is to have a teeny glass of wine beforehand, just to relax you understand! :D And I totally agree with running the machine a little faster than you dare - that helped me A LOT! :D

PS Love the image of you dancing BW! :D

There's been some great advice already given here! I only have a couple of things to add:

1. Learning to get just the right tension may take a little bit of playing, but it is important to know how to do that for your machine. (I'd always write down my starting tension before playing with it, in case I get befuddled I can always go back to where I started!) Don't be surprised if a different fabric or thread requires an adjustment in tension; that is normal, there really is no one setting that will always be right for every FMQ situation.

2. Don't be afraid to try (or toss out) any of our helpful advice; what works for one may or may not work for another, so if you can't get it to 'work' for you don't worry about trying something else. I have two machines I FMQ on - same brand, but one is fussier than all get out and the other one will take anything you throw at her with a smile - go figure!

The absolutely only thing that is guaranteed to improve FMQ is...more FMQ! I keep a stack of batting squares and practice squares so that I can play with it even when I don't have much time. I think we're set on placemats and coasters for a while :lol: :lol:

Here are pictures of how my work has progressed. I'm still not sure how to set my bobbin tension (the manual shows but it requires tightening the screws and that worries me). I'm also going to try different threads.

The first two pictures are of a normal sandwich with low level batting. The third photo is with batting that's much thicker. It came out great!

'puffy' is much more forgiving. the stitches sort of bury themselves in those grooves. go with puffy for a while until your confidence increases.

don't be afraid of the bobbin. you're bigger than it is. :mrgreen: whenever you tighten/loosen the bobbin, turn ONLY 1/4 of one revolution or even less, at a time, until you're comfortable doing this. follow roben's advice about keeping notes: whenever you move the bobbin screw, write it down. when you want to return to the original position, you'll know where to go back to.
if you've moved the screw more than once i.e. 'moved to the right 1/4 turn. moved to the right 1/4 turn.' then you know you did it twice, or you moved to the right 1/2 turn total. when you're finished go back 1/2 turn to the left.

am i speaking in tongues? :oops: :oops: :roll:

No, you're not speaking in tongues! That makes a lot of sense - I'll give a try tomorrow and see how it goes.

When using puffier batting, should I keep my stitches further apart so that it fluffs up nicer or can I still stay about 1/2" apart?

i would be more like 1/4" - 1/3", but play around and see what you like the look of. a lot depends on just how thick the batting is. and how puffy. is it poly? they're very high-loft. you want the back to to looks as nice as the front. or as close as possible, for most people, that never really happens, but you can get close. also, on high-loft battings, the more space you leave, the more you see the puffiness. if you stitch too closely, you'll flatten it all out and the stitches will be very obvious.

also, from what i saw in the pictures originally, the bobbin threads were too tight, so they should be loosened a little. ''little' being the operative word.
and you don't want to do all of the adjusting from one side usually. i know it's a pain, but you may have to play back and forth, bottom and top, until you get it balanced. in your case, start with loosening the bottom. just a little. after that, you MAY have to tighten up on top. a very little. lefty-loosey, righty-tighty. facing the screw.

remember, KEEP NOTES. when this is over, you want to go back to start, because the next project will be different batting. some people never change batting just for this reason, and have a different machine for regular sewing. if you garment sew, then you have to re-adjust everything. so keep those notes.

I hope it's not too late to suggest that you make a mark on your bobbin case to show the original position before you make any adjustments.
BTW it's looking good, the thick and the thin!

Here's another question: how do you like to secure your stitches when you start and stop?

Normally I don't bother securing when I start b/c the end is almost always pieced with another block or secured by binding. These stitches start in the middle of the quilt so should I be backstitching before getting started? How about at the end?

I'm so glad you started this thread. There is so much to learn here. I took a class in fmq and felt like I failed miserably! The teacher couldn't tell me what caused those pesky eyelashes on the back. I even had hubby try it when I got home and he had the same troubles. So anyway, lots of encouragement here, I'm not giving up yet.

Yours is looking so good! Keep up the good work.

Hi Tx - I'm FAR from an expert but a friend who is told me to pull the bobbin thread up to the top with the needle then hold the tails out of the way when you start. To finish off the same thing - leave a tail; then knot the threads together and sew them into the batting with a needle.