I put the quilt together and made diagonal lines with the walking foot. So far so good. Now I would like to add some FMQ.................I am so scared to mess all up!!
Do you mark the pattern first or is it called "free" because you really go free. Does marking even help if you want to free motion quilt?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Granny

The "Free" in Free Motion Quilting is for you are FREE to do anything you want. If you want to chalk the design on first and try to follow the lines--go for it. If you want to just do loops and meanders--go for it. Either way, you'll want to make a puddle around the needle area with your quilt, relax and just go with the flow. Concentrate on just the few inches all around your needle,

Don't forget to drop the feed dogs and put on your darning foot.

If you want to follow a pattern, but not mark the fabric, try using sulky solvy. It's clear water soluable. I mark a pattern with crayola washable markers and pin it to the fabric. Once quilted, tear away the larger pieces and the rest will wash away in the laundry. The key is lots of practice!

thanks

I heard about this tips years ago & swear by it-with FMQ use a stretch needle, (a ball point needle meant for knits) It has a longer scarf where the thread lies & makes a huge difference in preventing skipped stitches, especially when you get going too fast or gong around a curve. I love my Stretch needles.
Maire

OMG - the doorbell just got me out of a weird dream and yes it was about FMQ, it realy bugs me :oops: Thanks so much for your advice and keep your fingers crossed.

BTW it was the mailcarrier with 35 yards of fabric - had to cash the costs of custom.
Maybe I play a bit with the new fabric first to relax, a glass of wine wont be an option this time of day...........

Granny

I've never heard of a stretch needle who makes this? Now I know that a top stitching needle is very good to because of what you stated, is this the same thing?

As far as FMQ, make sure you practice with a sandwich first and adjust your tension (or eyelashes will happen). For me I find that if I go at a med speed I have more control of what I'm doing. That way its not stressful for me with the machine going at sonic speed and me trying to keep up!! :lol: :lol:

[quote=sewcrafty]I've used Organ & Schmetz, both good. I usually use Schmetz just because I can stock up when Joann's has the 50% off notions sales.
There are probably other brands also.
Maire

I use topstitching needs most of the time for FMQ and have to make myself remember that just because my JUKI stitches 1500spm I don't have to go that fast...especially arouond curves. I think the speed creates the eyelashes more than tension.

If I am using my regular sewing machine I mark first. Just seems to do better for me since I can't see much of the top. If I am using the mid-arm I just eyeball it.

Free Motion is you are free from the control of the feed dogs of the machine which caused the stitches to go back and forth.
Lowering the fee dogs allows you to move freely in any directions or pattern you want.

Now if you have never done Free Motion, I recomment you do some major practice first. It is not easy until you get the hang of it or the feel of free movement. Your hands are controlling the length of the stitch as the stitch mechanism of the machine has been disengaged.

My suggestion is for you to sandwich about a 24" practice piece.
Divide it into 4 sections. In one section do motifs like "e" or loops, in another do meandering which is almost the same but you don't cross the lines. in the next section do some forms that might look like waves with sharp points and in the 4th section do some long wavy lines - not straight but wavy and then end up writing your name.

The most important part is learning to feel a balance between the motion of your hands and the speed of the machine.
The faster the machine and slower hand movement the smaller stitch. The slower the machine and faster the hand gets long stitches. Therefore, you need to practice to get a balance between the two to produce a stitch the length about what you would regularily sew.

You can either mark or do a free all over design. However, the design should product a consistent density over all the quilt.
It is often easier to quilt in the ditch around large sections and then do your fm design in the area filling the space evenly and consistently.
There are many quilting designs(stencils) made to be continuous so you don't have to start and stop. Check out some of the stencil companies web pages (www.quiltingstencils.com) is one.
My three rules for achieving good fmo is:
1. Good flat working area.
2. Grip on the fingers (gloves, tips off rubber gloves or Tacky Finger) the stuff used to sort money in the bank.
3. Practice to find your balance between the speed of the machine and the movement of your hands.
4. Go slow.
5. Never leave the hands off the work while the machine is in motion. If you need to move your hands to get better grip or control, stop the machine (needle down) reposition and then start up again.,

When starting bring bobbin thread to top and hold it. Let the needle go up and down couple times and then move out.
If you stop, then needle down and reposition.
When you come to the end hold with needle down and rock back and forth just a little to fix the end of the stitch.

To get good sharp points in your design - let the needle go up and down in position a couple times before moving on. This prevents rounded points.

Guess this is enough.......remember........musicians don't get to the concert stage without practice, practice, practice. Same is true for satisfactory free motion quilting.

One more thing I forgot.

If you were "lucky" and had elementary school penmanship....remember the motion the teacher insisted on.
You need to be free and loose in your hand movements in free motion because the work should stay in basically the same position and your hands go right left, up and down. The work should pivot unless you need to reposition it for better visability and access to the area you are quilting.

thank you so much. It did some practicing and then actually started without marking, as all I do is adding flowers in each corner of the block. The blocks have different shaped Applications on it so it would not have made sense to mark, every free corner is slightly different.
It is going quite well, my biggest problem at the moment is that the thread is blending in so much that I have a hard time to see where I am..............and the machine is quite hot, so I gave both of us a break.
Going through all my needles I found that Schmetz universal 90/14 have the biggest needle eye for the thread and so far I just had breakage from the bobbin thread

Holice, thank you. After a year I'm still having problems at times. I printed out your advice.

After a full day of working I might have better spend some more time in practicing or reading books about fitting patterns. Looks a bit overload to me..........

I love it!!!!!
Maire

I don't know. All I know is that when doing FMQ to adjust the tension up, when I did that my eyelashes went away.

When I started FMQ I always marked my quilts with a stencil and a pounce pad. I still mark them sometimes. Do what works for you.