I just want to vent. I am in awe of all of you who machine quilt. I am especially envious of those who have long arm machines. I have spent the afternoon attempting to quilt a baby quilt, and my shoulders are sore, and my nerves are shot. This is not fun for me. I ended up "unsewing" most of what I had done and doing minimal quilting in the ditch. It's a wall hanging for my 8th grandbaby and I wanted it to be perfect. I've sewn all my life and do well with other things, but I'm just going to have to stick with hand quilting. I've read books, watched Ricky Tims, get all excited, but there's no amount of practice that will allow me to do what some of you do. Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better.

You sound like me until last year when I retired. I relaxed and just played around. Now I think I'm pretty good!

I am sorry you had all of these problems. Have you tried using decorative stitches along the seam lines and in patterns on the tops? These are fun and look good too, if you don't want to hand quilt them all :D:D:D

I felt the same way when i first tried it. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. Give it a try again on a practice piece. All you need is some practice when you are relaxed and can have fun with it.

try again on scrap and not a quilt you care about

you do just have to relax and play around with it...but there are many different crafts people in the world with many different and wonderful ways of doing things. My MIL is an amzing hand quilter, and she enjoys that way of doing things...I am a machine quilter...and we both respect and admire each others work...so you do what you are most comfortable with!

I just don't like machine quilting! I have tried it, but I feel like I have more control with hand quilting. Maybe someday I can take a class on it. Until then, I will stick with what I know.

I completely understand. I would prefer handquilting any day. I do machine quilt the Linus quilts I make and any ones I make for new babies etc. I know that most young mother's at least the ones in my family will wash any quilt I give them at least weekly if not more often. While I love to handquilt I am not willing to envision my handwork going through the wash cycle so many times. Almost 11 years ago I was stricken with a rare autoimmune disease that left me with weak proximal muscles, mainly shoulders and hips. Machine quilting anything bigger than a crib size is very hard on my arms and shoulders. When I attach the binding on bed size quilts I have to have my husband feed me the quilt so that I don't have to drag all of that weight around.
Many of my quilt friends who began doing machine or long arm quilting for others have burned out quickly. I know of several who have sold their long arm machines.

i agree! i have been practicing machine quilting for about 11 years now. much prefer to hand quilt, but i have found not all quilts "deserve" it. some of the baby quilts i have made i use embroidery floss with slightly larger stitches. looks good on them.

One of the biggest things w/machine quilting... if you mess up once it's a mistake - keep making the mistakes on purpose and it becomes a pattern :)

I like the sound of that. I'm going to "gulp" try some free motion soon... I'll be the little engine that could.

That's the great thing about quilting, you can do it your way. There is plenty of room in this world for both hand and machine quilters. Both make beautiful quilts.

I buy used flat sheets and thin blankets. Any time I want to practice a new pattern to "get the flow" of said pattern. Flip the edges over and machine sew. Sometime it takes more than one of these before I am satisfied. Then keep for family to use as throws or give them away. One of my sisters uses hers every day and has named it The Nap Time Blanket. My other sister wanted to show her to a friend as a sample of my work and I was horrified since it was just practice.

As for myself, I find I have more patience putting the quilt in the frame the night before and getting up refreshed in the morning to FMQ. I continue until the top is done (I usually don't do a lot of detail). The only rule to anything you try to do is keep practicing. I still am.

If you really hate it then don't do it. Either hand quilt or send it out to be quilted. I can do applique but I hate it. So no applique for me. Quilting is relaxing for me so I do what I enjoy.

Hey! Don't give up/ My first attempt I spent more time ripping out but I hung in there and got it done. It isn't perfect but I have improved and I can tell you it gets easier. Find someone on this board who FMQ and go to them for answers. I handquilted for years and could never go back again as it is too slow. I love handwork so invest my time in wearable art vests, embroidery and crochet/knitting.

I agree, dont give up just play around with it. Also i had a lot of shoulder pain also, i had to buy and table to make my machine lower, worked great.

I like that!!!!