Now that's the best suggestion yet ...... I'll drink to that! Make mine a dry red, BTW.
Nita

practice-practice-practice

YES, I believe this, too.

As for SITD, I've been using my regular all-purpose presser foot for years and doing pretty well, but I was never great at it until I broke the front of the foot off (by accident). Now I can see where I'm going! It's a whole new world, I tell ya.

Meanwhile I can't hand quilt to save my soul. I'm off to practice :)

Joanie, I am with you. I only machine quilt small stuff like wallhangings, children's quilts and Linus Quilts. Wrestling with anything larger ruins the whole experience for me. The part I hate most about making a bed size quilt is machine sewing on the binding before I finish it by hand. On queen or king size quilts I have to get my husband to help me by having him hold the sections of the quilt not yet under the machine and feed them to me. I sometimes have to set another table up behind my sewing table just to support the quilts when I am doing any kind of machine quilting.
I am just finishing up the quilting on a double bed size quilt that will be raffled off to aid our local Linus Chapter. It took me a little over a month to hand quilt and I was able to watch TV with my husband or carry on a conversation with him while I worked. Neither is possible while machine quilting.

If there is a quilt shop in your area that offers machine quilting classes I would suggest you take it. There the instructor can see what your machine can and cannot do and help you. I'm sure you would also pick up some tips that would make machine quilting less frustrating for you. Just a thought.

Well, there will be a FEW of us trying to PRACTICE up on machine quilting. I handquilted my first quilt, the whole thing, every seam of every block, but I'd like to go faster, too. I have one quilt top, a jelly roll, ready to do and I want to practice on some little "sandwiches" first. I don't want to have to have someone else QUILT all my quilts...just because I can't do one on my sewing machine. So, you all better PRAY me as I practice. Otherwise, I'll be ready to throw up my hands and quit too!

[quote=Joanieu]The stitches look too small and look like they are all crumped together plus I am not able to keep the stitches in the ditch. It just looks too messy - I am trying it on the quilt I am making for myself.[/quot

And that's why I don't stitch in the ditch! too hard to stay where you are suppose too :) Good Luck! My fmq isn't very good either. But I am going to figure it out one day! You will get it.

I have a brother bc1000. The 1.5, 2.0 etc. is the stitch length. Stitch length goes low to high, 1 - 5, on my machine. So set the stitch length, sew and inch or two, reset the stitch length, sew an inch or two, and so on. Then count the number of stitches per inch.

However, if your stitches are bunching in one place, the problem is not the stitch length. Do you have your feed dogs down? When I put my feed dogs down (which is rare), I sometimes forget they're down and wonder why my fabric isn't advancing...and get teeny, tiny stitches - also known as knots.

Hope this helps. I'm pretty new to the world of quilting and the tool I know how to use best is the seam ripper.
:-D

Now that is something I can understand and try... lol.

Thanks for that suggestion and I looked and the feed dogs are up. I don't think I have put them down yet on this machine. yep, my stitch lenghts are 1.0 - 5.0 also and some of of the stitches you can not adjust - presaved I guess. I just need to practice a lot more like everyone has suggested. I don't even want to think about FMQ yet especially if I can not do the simple SID with the machine. I will learn it and then I can do some PIF and give to charity, etc (once I get some stash built up). The thing is I really love hand quilting... oh well, back to work and thanks to everyone for the positive feed back. I really love this board. HUGS to all :)

I'm with you I can't get the machine quilting down. Too many puckers. Have about 4 tops that need to be done. Wish I could afford to have them sent out. Will be watching your topic for hints LOL!!!
Debbie

Instead of trying to hit the ditch, try using a serpentine stitch. looks great on kids & utility quilts. goes so fast ! While you are quilting, make sure your quilt if relaxed and not hanging down over the edges of your machine if it is not flush in a cabinet. creates tremendous pull on the fabric.

I envy your ability to do it by hand. I just can't hand quilt - but I have a Tin Lizzie and I can go to town with it. I enjoy getting my quilts completed quickly and they're so much fun. On the 3 separate occasions when I tried to quilt on my regular sewing machine, it was disastrous. It has something to do with the position of my hands - and the fact that my back and shoulders hurt when I'm using the regular machine. Of course, when I tried this on all 3 occasions, the quilts were Queen size and 1 king - so they were very heavy and hard to move. I just decided I wasn't going to do it that way since I have the other way...

I envy your ability to do it by hand. I just can't hand quilt - but I have a Tin Lizzie and I can go to town with it. I enjoy getting my quilts completed quickly and they're so much fun. On the 3 separate occasions when I tried to quilt on my regular sewing machine, it was disastrous. It has something to do with the position of my hands - and the fact that my back and shoulders hurt when I'm using the regular machine. Of course, when I tried this on all 3 occasions, the quilts were Queen size and 1 king - so they were very heavy and hard to move. I just decided I wasn't going to do it that way since I have the other way...

Christmas will come again, and you can spend time practicing on potholders. Small easy, and if you hate it, it will still work as a potholder. Practice makes perfect, and I am having the same issues as you, so you are in good company.

dont give up, keep going that is how you learn!!

[quote=smitty]What is a serpentine stitch? Is that curvy?

Don't give up just yet Joanie! I was where you are just a few of weeks ago. I just had to step away from it when I got so frustrated. I agree with others..... practice on small sandwiches..... mutiple times. Get to know how your machine reacts to various tensions, threads, etc. with various feet. It has helped me tremendously. I have not finished quilting my quilt yet.... but I will get it done. I am determined <and hard headed enough> it is not going to "whoop" me! You can do it!!

I had this happen to me when I forgot to use my walking foot
It also helps to make sure you have used plenty of basting pens .I only used basting spray and wound up with a big clump at end of border what a mess took eight hours of seam ripping Yuck! Needless to say I learned my lesson.

Joanieu, if you don't have a foot that is made just for stitch in the ditch, I highly recommend you get one. The first three quilts I did on my machine were very difficult, but once I got that foot....and once I learned to put my ironing board to the left of my machine, at a 90 degree angle and most of my quilt on it, then I did fine on the quilts that followed.

The ironing board keeps gravity from pulling the quilt down and messing up my stitches.

I am still pretty new to quilting, but I take a great deal of satisfaction in the actual quilting, and I like stitch in the ditch because it has a line I can follow without having to do anything else. :)

Just keep practicing. You will conquer this!

how did i do that it went with the other posters , i hope you read them all . Also lowering the table my shoulders don't hurt as bad. { aurther/ ites came to visit ,sure wish he would leave now .} Dottie Bug

I didn't know they make a "stitch in the ditch foot"! Does anyone know if they make one for the Viking machines?

What is a stitch in the ditch foot? Is that why I always fall out of the ditch. lol

That's not universally so - I use a walking foot to FMQ and SID on my Bernina and it's fine. I do have shoulder and neck pain from wrestling the quilt but I don't have issues with staying in the ditch. My trouble comes when I try to put the feed dogs down and FMQ w/my darning foot. YIKES!!! What a mess that was. Glad I just tried it on a scrap sandwich 'cause I would have hated to have to pull out all those stitches!

You need to give it another try and another try and another. Practice makes perfect.

no matter how careful I am a lot of my stitches end up out of the ditch - but unless really bad I just leave it. Once washed it doesn't seem to be real noticeable unless you are looking for it. Anyway, if people are going to critique a gift quilt for that it will be the last quilt they get from me! The will lose their quiltworthyness (I know, not a word but whatever)

Are you using a walking foot? It feeds the top layer thru like your feed dogs do the bottom layer. I always use mine when I am quilting straight lines or gentle curves.

Did you lengthen your stitches??

I agree. Any form of quilting takes practice. Are you using gloves to help move the quilt or a slick surface to help it slide easier. Also make sure most of the quilt is supported and not pulling against you. I really hated it to begin with but have tried more and am learning as I go. It gets better with practice, practice, and more practice. :) :)

Have you tried using flannel for the batting instead of regular batting? When I couldn't do it on my machine, I tried flannel and go slowly without anything fancy and it works great. I can't go much bigger than 24 x 24.

I'm with you. I've tried machine quilting numerous times on smaller projects and, while I consider myself very experienced and accurate with using the sewing machine, I can't seem to do a satisfactory job with even something as simple as stitching in the ditch when it comes to machine quilting. I still use the machine on some small things (like potholders), but I will hand quilt most things. I just like the handmade look of hand quilting anyway.

Have you considered using the adhesive backed paper patterns for doing designs, stipple, etc. on your quilts. You did mention you were impatient with practicing new things. These are available from Keepsake Quilting on rolls and can be used on bindings, quilt tops and fill in areas. Just a thought for impatient quilter's.

I am definitely not good with SID ... but can do FMQ on the more modest sized quilts I do. FMQ has more flow and errors are usually much smaller and seldom noticed. The more you practice the easier it is ... because it flows gently. SID is much more exacting for me.

Can you tell I am most worst critic?

ali

I don't care for stitch in the ditch either. I would much rather stitch 1/2" inside or outside of the seam lines.

It can take a while to master any skill. SITD isn't hard, but you have a great quilt shop there in Granbury, so ask them for some help: tips or even a class.

Stitching in the ditch is very difficult.
solution - - use a decorative stitch and stitch along the line of the seam, or use a slight zig zag stitch.
Machine quilting a full quilt without having enough support of it to keep it from pulling against the feed dogs
solution - - push the table your machine is sitting on into a corner, having the corner at the left (northwest) of your machine, the machine sitting on the lower right of the table. This will keep your quilt from dragging the quilt through your machine too fast out the back. or dragging off to the left side because the wall is really your friend.
Use another table sitting at your left - - or your ironing board set as close to your table height as possible ... added support for your quilt.
Practice does make perfect, but as I said .... SID is very difficult for the best of us. (which is one of the reasons I started free motion quilting <g>) I can quilt faster and cover more area with FMQ than SID ... there are a number of great tutorials and threads on this board to encourage you ... I salute you for your love of handquilting.
Yes, the machine is faster, but there is much more satisfaction in your hand quilting - - needle workers know where of you speak. <wave>

practice, practice, practice every day you will get better and better. I take old scraps sew scraps of batting together and make sandwiches and practice making designs and try to follow them over and over.