I have not been quilting very long. I have mostly done straight line quilting 3" to 4" squares. I tried a bit of free motion quilting on a Dr. Suess quilt I made, but wasn't totally impressed. I realize that it takes practice, but I have a couple questions. Do you use a walking foot or the "square" embroidery foot? I didn't put the feed dogs down as I was using the walking foot but wondered if that was correct. I am guessing they should be down if using the embroidery foot.

I did decide to have a long arm quilter quilt the queen size quilt I made as a grad gift. It was beautiful and will use her for the larger quilts but hope that I could do some of the smaller quilts myself....

Walking foot -- dogs up. Best for straight lines or gentle curves.

FMQ -- typically dogs down, but some people do leave them up. Generally a darning foot is used.

Check out this site for great tips.

http://www.daystyledesigns.com/

It is possible for many people to do queen size quilts on a regular machine. I'm sure you will be doing your smaller quilts in no time. It just takes patience and practice.

When you free motion quilt the quilt needs to move freely. Use a foot made for FMQ or if you don't have that use a darning foot. The feed dogs need to be down to allow you to move the fabric freely. Don't feel bad about the way your first attempt turned out, if it came out even resembling free motion with the feed dogs up and a walking foot on you are probably a natural doing it. Try setting up your machine as I tried to describe and try again on a test sandwich, you'll be amazed at the difference.