Free motion quilting
 

Happy holidays to everyone!!!

I had surgery last week, so have been having fun with ALL day to do nothing but quilt and read (OK, I admit, I'm getting a bit stir crazy LOL, but am having fun)

I have tried my hand a FMQ a number of times, and hated it. Figured it was because I was too impatient, you need WAY to much practice to make something look nice (as opposed to something a 5 year old shoved through the sewing machine).

So I sat down again this week and tried it again. And you know what? I still hate it. And I so wanted to be able to have these really pretty designs on my quilts and I simply can't do it. I don't know if it's technique, I don't know if it's a mental block, I really don't know.

It's not my machine, I have ZERO issues doing FMQ with my machine. I can't even sew over lines that I drew on fabric LOL

And honestly, when I look at it all done, I don't even like the look of the quilt at all. I much prefer the way I quilt things together.

Are there others out there like me that just prefer to quilt without doing FMQ?

I'm struggling with FMQ right now. I really want to learn how to do it well, but I don't seem to have a knack for it.

I just don't like doing things I'm not good at. :)

I'm not going to give up though. I'll keep plugging away until it gets reasonable.

The hardest thing for me to FMQ is a straight line of all things. You'd think that would be easy, wouldn't you?

So I'm just following the print or just wandering around with loops and wavy lines and weird pebbly things. I practiced on a wall hanging and some potholders and moved on to a quilt and I'm in too deep to quit now.

But I understand not really enjoying it. I'm having to make myself do it.

If you don't like FMQ you can still get nice results outlining or using decorative stitching.

It's your quilt, so do what you like and what feels good to you.

Nothing wrong with that.

I always feel frustrated with FMQ, too. Now I just use my embroidery machine and quilting programs I've bought. I have some block programs and some edge-to-edge programs. My machine can do up to 6X10" designs, but I have a lot of 4X4" designs, too. If you have an embroidery machine, look at Embroidery Library online. They have all sorts of programs you can use.

I would look into quilting with a walking foot. There are several books out there and at least one Craftsy class. You are not limited to straight lines.

I have an embroidery machine, and I think that's part of it LOL ... why don't I just use that instead of driving myself nuts trying to do something, that quite frankly, I don't enjoy.

I'm usually one of those - I WILL CONQUER IT - but have to also recognize that I don't HAVE to do everything LOL

Seriously, I just took a really nice wall hanging (bargello) and wrecked it!

FMQ takes practice and patience what helped me I used 100wt silk thread it is so forgiving and it will give you the confidence you need to move onto other threads and designs I really think straight line quilting in hard to do fmq that is why they use the rulers to do them

Sometimes to my eye a lot of FMQ seems to "distort" the design and detract from the fabric.

To me the purpose of quilting is to keep the layers of fabric from moving and not to be the feature of the item.

That is just my humble opinion - by no means right and not written to offend anyone.

BTW I admire those you can do those lovely designs on their work and my FMQ skills need a lot of work. I like to use the walking foot to do my quilting.

You really need to be familiar with your machine. When at a certain speed, and I don't mean FAST, you just need to match that speed and move the fabric at the same rate that the sewing machine would. The other thing is to not look at the needle but where you want to go next. It does take a lot of practice. I found it easier to follow lines.

I do gentle curved lines with my walking foot, but it's not for FMQing. i've seen some gorgeous machine work by domestic sewing machines. Quilters can do almost anything!

Looks like you would be a candidate for a ruler like Accents In Design. Amazing quilting with just straight lines. Thought I might like to do that, but haven't had the time --Until Tomorrow - looking forward to surgery, took a whole month off, and hoping to be able to start sewing within the first week!

I've tried but don't have the patience for perfection so after yrs of SID and then straight line echo's with walking foot I finally used my quilting designs from emb Lib and used my emb machine and very happy with results..FM'ing isn't for everyone and I'm one of those. I'm always afraid after putting tons of wk into a quilt I'd ruin it.

for me FMQ was an AHA moment but it tooks years of practice to get there. I can tell you it is not overnight and it does get better craftsy and patsy thompson played a huge role in me finally getting the basics down. I am not necessarily good at staying on lines but I am now decent at feathers and fill designs. My fave teachers are cindy needham, patsy thompson, and ann petersen. there is even a quilting with rulers class on craftsy

My best advice to those struggling with FMQ is to get a small white board and draw your quilting patterns over and over on the white board. It builds muscle memory and teaches your brain which way to go. Helps you not quilt yourself into a corner and is cheaper than paper or quilt sandwiches. Yes, you have to practice on the machine too but you would be surprised how much the white board practice helps. I'm pretty good at FMQ but still use the board when learning a new pattern.

I have finally quit struggling and use the straight line method of quilting. I do a lot of QAYG so it is easy to move a large block around and do some really neat modern designs. I took the class by Angela Walters and also Jacque Gering on Craftsy. Angela uses the FMQ foot but does a dot to dot system and it works well. Jacque uses blue painters tape and a walking foot and you can come up with some really neat designs. I can stipple when necessary but like you cannot really seem to find it fun...so why continue....there is a lot of info on the Internet about walking foot quilting and straight line and I find this fun and it really looks good on my quilts.

I find it easier to FMQ smaller projects. I usually do a combination of straight line quilting and FMQ as it takes me a long time to FMQ and I can only do about an hour of it in a day or I go crazy. It definitely helps me to 'warm up' on a practice sandwich beforehand, using the same fabric/batting combination and thread that is in the quilt. I find it is very hard to FMQ a straight line or follow markings - much easier to just 'wing it'. But I keep working on it, each quilt gets a little better.

I agree. I can't seem to do the FMQ foot thing, where you drop and feed dogs and move the fabric around. I'm just not that coordinated, the quilt is bulky and my machine doesn't drop the feed dogs. But, I've had great results with a just walking foot and doing free form, wavy lines, vines, etc. I start in the middle and work my way out to the edges.

~ C

I'm another one that fought with trying to learn/do FMQ. Finally realized I didn't have the patience or the wanting to do it, so I'm a squiggly, wavey line quilter and happy with the results.

I have not taken the time to learn to FMQ. I can stipple on a piece of fabric for a handbag or such but not good enough for a quilt. I like to do the pantagrams on my quilts. I now purchase pantagrams, digitally download them and then using Golden Thread paper draw out a design the width of my table runner or quilt. Make a master copy and figure how many repeats I need, etc. I love quilting this way. I have done several quilts using this method along the borders and used individual motifs for the blocks. Have a number of tops to finish and this is an economical method for me.

I struggled at first too. In fact, I gave up and walked out of my first free motion quilting class because I was so frustrated. Then I found Leah Day's site and watched and practice with her videos. I signed up for her building blocks quilt along and that was the turning point for me. Still not great at it but I highly recommend watching Leah Day's videos. The videos are free on her site, but she also teaches a few Craftsy classes.

Funny this subject should come up. I am taking a class on Craftsy called "The Secrets of FMQ" with Christina Carmeli. I'm not trying to sell anything to anyone, but this class is so helpful. I actually think I can attach a stack of quilt tops I have ready to quilt. Hope this helps.

Susan

I'm not proficient yet, but enjoying learning. My biggest obstacle is all over quilting. I simply don't like it. My grandmother used minimal quilting. Her quilts lasted, and that is good enough for me.

I found ruler work which makes more sense. I haven't used the machine, but I am buying the templates and tracing them on the blocks. It's easier to deal with than Golden Paper. I used an arc and FMQ an orange peel on the last quilt. Quite happy with the look, although FMQ still needs a lot of work. Looking at the back, the secondary pattern is interesting.

Most of the instructors on Craftsy deal with a LOT of quilting. Every inch needs to be filled. I watch the beginnings of the videos for FMQ technique and skip the rest. I also do QAYG so rolling a quilt is moot. I usually have to add scrap to the sides to hold onto the fabric for FMQ.

If I want to quilt on sashing - the Pfaff 2170 will do that. It's easier right now on smaller pieces.

I got started as I wanted a 10 inch block for a rag quilt. My embroidery machine will do 5 inches unless I split the design and turn the hoop. That wasn't worth the effort. Someone here mentioned the paper, so I used that. hard to get it all out of stitches, but it worked. I had much more of the fabric showing than quilting and that was the purpose. The fabric was the highlight. I was using monofilament which wasn't easy to see. It worked.

I just finished a quilt that I used invisible thread on top and in the bobbin I used thread that matched the backing. It worked so much better on the busy patchwork top (could hardly see the quilting) and any mistakes didn't show much. Certainly from a little distance you can't see any mistakes. I'm still learning FMQ, but I think I will enjoy it when I feel more confident about it.

Just remember that FMQ takes time to build "muscle memory." Don't go too fast; move your fabric at an even speed, and don't look at the needle; it's not going anywhere. Enjoy.

I hand quilt because I never got the FMQ bug. I have done some straight line quilting on quilts I know will get washed a lot but prefer the look of hand quilting.

You know, it's perfectly OK to hate FMQ. We're all different and have different styles. Why fight and struggle with something that you don't like? You're not broken, so don't fix it. Quilt in the style that makes you happy, otherwise what's the point?

As with any new technique it takes lots and lots of practice. If you are having trouble, maybe take a class and see if the instructor can watch you closely and give you some pointers as to how to improve what you are doing. When I don't like something I have been trying to do for quite a while, I always ask a fellow quilter to watch what I am doing and give me advice on how to improve.

I love FMQ and love doing it. Being relaxed and not hurrying helps a lot. I mostly quilt doing it. I just make large stipple type quilting, no patterns, leaves or anything I just move however I feel.

I could never get the knack for FMQ on my domestic and I found after any session I had horrible neck and shoulder pain from being so tensed up. And I found it incredibly frustrating with larger quilts. I would do straight line quilting on wall hangings but anything larger than 60" square I hand quilted and any shape that really mattered I also hand quilted. Many of my early quilts had a mix of machine and hand quilting. Then I discovered longarm quilting on a rack and a whole new world opened up for me. I love long arm free motion quilting because to me it is more like the natural way of drawing by moving the machine over the surface as opposed to having to move the sandwich under a stationary needle. I am always in awe of the people who can do such beautiful FMQ on a domestic or sitdown extended arm machine.

I don't know how many replies you have gotten, but I would like to suggest the classes on Craftsy for FMQ. I am confident that if you follow any of Leah Day's projects to the end that you will be a more confident machine quilter. All of the Craftsy FMQ classes are great, but I would stick with the ones that actually have at least a small quilt for the main project. I made Craftsy's first BOM with Amy Gibson and then Leah Day Followed with the FMQ. It's one of my husband's favorites. He loves all the quilting and he hasn't found the mistakes. Oh, don't get discouraged. It does take a lot of practice but you will get it with one of these projects.

I have found that doing small projects using free motion is very successful for me. And surprisingly, I'm really good at writing. I made friends mug rugs for Christmas and my coffee words got so good I went for cappuccino :-).

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!)