I spray baste and then put in about 10 pins at corners and a few other places to hold the shape. I have tried just pinning or just basting and like this method better and have not had any creases in material.

Spray basting helps a lot to prevent puckers. Heavy starching also helps. I always use a heavy starch solution on the backing fabric before layering (1:1 solution of Sta-Flo and water), and also use spray starch on the top. Starch stabilizes the fabric to prevent it from distorting while you handle it.

You might want to try wavy lines using a walking foot. This is a really easy way to machine quilt with no worries about stitch length or staying exactly on a line or in a ditch. You can even do wavy lines in both directions to create wavy cross-hatching. Try it on a large practice sandwich; you might like it!

There is a you tube video of sandwiching with 2 boards. The says if u do this there r no puckers!!! I just sandwiched a panel am going to try it!!

Me t oo. I find it awkward to machine quilt a big quilt with my home machine. I'm afraid of screwing it up after all the work I put into it. So I do hand quilting. It takes longer but I feel more comfortable with it. I am thinking of try quilt as you go. It would be so much easier to just quilt one square at a time then sew it together. Maybe my next project.

Ever since my husband bought me an open toe foot for my machine, I have fallen in love with FMQ. Couple of suggestions that I have learned the hard way. First, spray basting is the way to go. It doesn't make it harder to sew and will wash out, but it does a wonderful job of keeping the layers together. Secondly, if you are new to this, I would suggest starting with a smaller project so there is less fabric to move around. And third, practice, practice, practice. Have fun with what you're doing and your skill will get better over time.

I just took a class. Some of my favorite suggestions- use Hobbs batting that has the fusible stuff on both sides, so you fuse the front and back to the batting (washes out), big safety pins every few inches (and don't close them until all are in place), and take a deep breath, suck it up, and get it done. :-D also suggested not to use a mono color on the backing, a pattern will hide a multitude of quilting imperfections. virg

I'm not real good at doing FM, but I've never had any tucks(knock on wood). I starch the fabrics for the blocks before cutting, and I starch the dickens out of the backing, then I tape it to my cutting table making sure that it's taut, but NOT stretching it too much, especially against the grainline. Then I spray baste, then put the top on. After that, comes the hard part, at least for me.

I'm scared to death of the "quilting part". My husband even bought me a long arm machine and it sits in my sewing room looking at me.

Lynn

try making some small - maybe 16 x 16 quilts and pin them together, just play with machine quilting. you may need to expand your tabletop to accomidate the weight of the quilt, if it is sliding off the table it will cause you to pull and get tucks in the back. just practice, practice, practice

I started out just like you. Then got the nerve to use spray baste, that helped some of the tucks, then stuck to it. I also found making sure your back is nice and taut when spraying helped even more, then I found not going too, too fast on the machine helped even more. Then practice on the free motion quilt after quilt. Now I can say I have almost no tucks. It is a process. If I can do it anyone can.