I'm sure that there are some folks who are immediately successful, but not me. I read somewhere that you should make a big stack of practice sandwiches. FMQ 45 minutes every day, and at the end of a month, you will have it down. This was my experience, and even after a month, I wasn't wonderful, but comfortable, with an even stitch length. The amount of time per day was good, so you didn't get tired, and the daily repetition gets the muscle memory ingrained. You can reuse the sandwiches by putting a new piece of fabric on top, so you don't need a new one every day. A hard thing for me was figuring out where to go next. I would strongly agree with the posters who said to doodle with paper and pencil a lot.

1)Draw with your index finger to imprint the pattern on your brain. 2)Give yourself permission to sew in all directions. Once I did this, things improved. Those of us coming from an apparel background have many years of sewing forward. 3)Increase the size of your practice sandwiches. When you use something small, there is too often nothing to hold on to near the edge and the size is limiting. I only quilt a small area at a time, but I use a larger area to guide the quilt. I am down to a border with not much extra now and it's difficult to keep my vines where I want them.

My FMQ isn't perfect, but it will hold the quilt together and it will improve. Soon I will asking for help with feathers which scare me.

I'm getting much better with Cindy Needham's class on Craftsy. It's for quilters of all levels.

Hey, Im right there with you. I expect too much of myself. I too am learning FMQ. I do pot holders, lol.....I did do a table tunner and it turned out pretty good. I know we will get better if we just keep tryinh and not expect too much of ourselves, good luck and do as I am doing, hang in there. :)

I can't stress enough checking out Leah Day's Free Motion Quilt site! She refers to s "stitch/mind muscle you develope from practice and also sends us back to our memories of learning cursive handwriting. I don't Have FMQ mastered, but try to practice daily on a scap plain piece of fabric no smaller than 7 inches. I promise you will eventually master it. But to sit and just practice the art ver and over at one time will rattle you marvellous brain cells------we'll it did at least for me!

Hang in there, I just learned how to operate my sewing machine August 2011. Now, I am trying to learn how to FMQ and having difficulty. Signed up for Leah class on Craftsy, and hopefully that will help me. The most important I hear is practice, practice.

I doodle FAQ patterns in all my meetings at work. My coworkers think its pretty funny but it has helped me train my brain very well. I love FAQ. I stuck to meandering for a couple of years first.

Relax! From what I've learned from TV and youtube is practice,practice,practice. Look at it this way, when you were learning how to ride a bike, did you fall a few times before you could get your balance right? When you were learning how to drive a car, did it take some practice to get your license? Why would you assume free motion quilting is any different? The first time you do anything is harder than if you do that task for years. I've seen so many posts on here where posters say they have tried FMQ once or twice,say this is too hard, and give up. One teacher suggested buying a white board or a sketch book and write a line of cccc's. The idea is to do it enough that you have muscle memory.Then try different letters. Once you get that down, try connecting leaves or hearts or stars or whatever you want. Use practice sandwiches and do it. Remember, you will not be going to quilt jail if you feel that you do it wrong! This is supposed to be a pleasant hobby, if you get stressed out, what fun is that? Good Luck!

try getting a dry erase board and practice; it's been said that if you practice drawing the design until you feel comfortable then it'll come more easily when you FMQ. I took a class at Raleigh sewing expo last yr because I too was intimidated by the thought of it. I was surprised that I was pretty good. I havne't done anything yet but right now I'm working on finishing up WIP and then I'm going to get serious about it. I even have a crib size Gracie metal quilt frame with stitch control that I picked up. I was going to sell it due to lack of space but they don't do so well here on Craigslist so if I have to keep it I want to learn to use it. I'm hoping to take another class in the future.

To each his own! My own are my friends who bought long arm quilting machines so they can quilt the tops that I and others take to them. I get the thrill of the top, they get to exercise their artistry and make some money. FMQ a kitchen quilt (hotpad) is about the most I'm going to do and I don't feel frustrated or bad about it. froggyintexas