I have not been quilting very long, and the first time I did the actual quilting, I hated it. Now I find it very satisfying. I did have to get a walking foot and learn to support the weight of my quilt on my ironing board, but, now I don't hate it. I am not willing to pay for someone to do it.

This is why I have a bunch of tops not quilted. But darn it, I had fun making them and WOULD NOT have fun quilting them, so that's that!!!!

I feel your pain and agree wholehearted with you. I'm trying to find more time to practice - not easy though and am using smaller projects. One piece of advice that someone shared with me was to to go at 1/2 speed if your machine allows it and then press down on the pedal as hard as you want. That has helped me some.

What is quilt by check?

This theory is priceless and I total agree LOL

I have no idea what happened to my last post but I say
AMEN!!!!!

I find SID easier at this point. I'm finding it way too difficult to "freely" move the quilt when I'm wrestling with it trying to get it under the needle. I would like to get to free motion eventually...

It is when you pay someone with a check to quilt your quilt. :)

QAG may be as useful to you as it is for me. That way you get to chose what size to quilt!

I think the 24" square seems to be the breaking point. Runners, miniatures, purses - no problem, but the larger stuff, I know what you mean about the whole sewing room bracing for it! I lucked out on my DD baby's quilt - I stopped into a shop during a Shop Hop and they where doing a demo of their long arms. The people were fantastic, convinced me I could do it, so I rented time the following week and finished the quilt in 2 hours - when I had originally figured on a week of fighting with the quilt to finish it.

No, it will help relax you and your quilting will be better for it. lol.

If it doesn't help us quilt better, it won't matter because we won't even care.

I'm really struggling with FMQ and the results aren't that great, but when it does go right, it's a great feeling! I've decided to go ahead and quilt some of the tops that have been sitting around for ages - I'm only going to learn by doing it. They're not precious heirlooms, were made for the interest of the design or method, it's not the end of the world if I mess up the quilting. And I can see that I'm very slowly getting a bit better at it - the other day I had a session that went really well -my machine didn't fight back for once and I really got into the flow of what I was doing - it was thrilling and made all the tears and swear words worthwhile!

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Seriously, some people do drink a glass of wine before doing FMQ to help them relax a little. Tension makes it worse!! IE...YOUR tension, not the machine's!! :?

And 3 glasses of wine afterwards if it's all a disaster...! ;)

I SITD 4 placemats on my DH's old Singer, regular foot and feed dogs up...used an entire spool of thread and hated it. Made my first quilt a month later, quilted by check for my first 4 quilts (really only had to pay for 3 because she messed up the quilting on my first quilt :cry: ), and then ordered my LA...best move I ever made!!! I'd much rather quilt anything then piece any more!!!

You got that right Gaigai!!! Amen!!!!!!

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: Sweetie we all KNOW how you feel. Anything larger than a nice size lap quilt I tend to either hand quilt, or send out to be longarmed.

Since backaches are a problem in general for me, and just sewing can hurt - imagine just what doig a whole quilt wold be like.

And yes, life is far far too short to waste time, energyand body on what will about kill me to do.

THANK YOU TO MY LONG ARM QUILTER FRIEND
JUlile

I just read today on the internet where a really fine free motion quilter said that she had all kinds of trouble with her tension if she dropped her feed dogs. So she left them up but covered them with a piece of a file card with a hole for the needle and said it took care of the tension problems. You might want to try it. All I know is what I read. HA It's a cheap fix if it works and doesn't cost anything but a little of your time if it doesn't.

I've just ordered a straight stitch needle plate, as I'm told that might help too. Will let you know!

I love playing with fabric and piecing, but am seriously hopeless at the quilting part of it. If I do it by hand, it takes forever and may never get done. If I do it by machine, it's a losing fight...

So, now I piece to my heart's content and send the tops to be finished either by hand (when I have the budget!) or by longarm.

The results are so beautiful and it helps other people make a living from their skills. Skills I just do not have.

It's a win-win situation

I've just tried a practice session with the feed dogs up, and my stitches are much better.

What's a stright stitch needle plate? I get the drift, but never heard of it.

hang in there. it does get better. make some fudge, it's cheaper than prozac.

I asked that last week -here are the answers and a brilliant picture!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-126059-1.htm

Well, I'm still alive and enjoyed just going through all of this thread and reading your comments. I left it alone for a couple of days, then I ripped out the 3 rows that I had in. This is the FWS quilt, it is on point. So I changed my mind from having a stitching line down the side of each cornerstone and just put one through the center, diagonally and vertically. When I finished the verical columns, I pressed each horizontal column, and pinned each side of the stitching line. I worked slower, telling myself it was beautiful, I would love it, put Enya on the radio, and it doesn't look too bad,. Now I can hand quilt in the border triangles. As for the wine idea, I would be afraid to start. We make wine and have a cellar full. (You might never have heard from me again) Thanks for all of your help..

Oooh- can I come and quilt at your place?! Glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself and are pleased with your results. I've been making progress too. Last week I stippled a quilt, and the results weren't too bad, and now I'm doing loop-the-loop on a Christmas wall hanging. I'm using very different threads this time, but I've managed to find a tension that works. This is such a breakthrough for me. And I'm enjoying it too!