I usually have my quilts quilted by a long arm quilter, but have been practicing and practicing with practice sandwiches my fmq. I find sometimes when I am relaxed my stitching is much better, but my quilting stitches still need a long way to go before tackling a big project. I am not going to give up.

I do a combination of FMQ and walking foot with gentle curves and my quilts come out not astounding but good enough for me to enjoy or to give to loved ones. I don't do fancy feathers but I don't care. I do stippling where it's easy - like on small quilts or on borders and sometimes challenge myself to try some follow the line stuff on Project Linus quilts for practice but that's about it. I'm still of working age so I don't produce enough quilts to get good at it but I will challenge myself in small ways. If I don't enjoy it though I won't do it. Hobbies are meant to be fun and when it's no longer fun what's the point. I say do only what you enjoy and let the rest go (unless you are shooting to win an award some day).

Check out McTavishing on UTube, you may find this helpful, and there are no mistakes to make.....

I'm not going to give up either... I have lots of community service quilts to practice on.

Thanks everyone for all the responses! The one I like the best (of course LOL) is why bother trying to fix something I don't like hahahaha

I've written down the names of instructors that people mentioned, so if I ever feel like I really want to try it again, I'll at least have a starting point!

Happy holidays to all you wonderful quilters!

I have found that people I give quilts to prefer less quilting. I did one with a closer pattern and have been asked why the quilt is so stiff.

Doing straight lines is, IMHO the hardest thing to do with FMQ. I absolutely cannot do them without a ruler and even then going pretty slow.
I had tried may times to do FMQ and also hated it, and the I took a class on Craftsy from Cindy Needham and something just clicked. I don't know what she said or did, but I got hooked. Since then, I started on my domestic machine and was thrilled with the results. Then made the mistake of going to a shop and trying out a sit down quilter - bought it. Just last week, I got a stand up long arm, and have not looked back. I definitely blame it all on Cindy N. She does amazing work on a domestic machine, and got me started. Now, it is my happy place.
Jane in OR

I'm getting a little bit better as I go but if I get tired the stitches get huge and crooked.
So I have to do it in little bits here and there.

I have another machine set up to do little stuff when I get tired.

I've been quilting only for 5 yrs now, but once I started doing FMQ, my desire to get better just keeps me searching for ways. Nancy's Notions had a ruler foot and template set on sales a few weeks ago & I got one. Then my DH ordered templates for snowflakes, feathers and spines. I can hardly wait to start working with it!!! I've got to finish our Mariner's quilt first, so I can practice.

I'm with you! I just discovered something recently that downloading quilting designs bought on line and using my Baby Lock embroidery machine to quilt a cool simple flower design on a bunch of 5" squares on a baby quilt. Turned out really nice and will be utilizing this method again. This method has been around for a long time but guess I'm a bit slow at trying it. (the hardest part for me was transferring the design onto the USB drive to put into my sewing machine to utilize the design!)