I need some encouragement on my quilting...
 

I have posted pictures of my quilts, everyone says they are beautiful and I do nice work... I send them out to be machine quilted.. I am finding that you gals/guys use your regular sewing machines to quilt? I have not tried it yet, I am afraid of screwing up! what and how should I go about this? a small one? should I drop the feeddogs and just go at it? or walking foot it and then what? I must look like an idiot.............. maybe hands one class? I can hand quilt in a big frame, but I will never get it done..........

I can't bring myself to pay what it costs to have a quilt done professionally (and so do not have any of those super gorgeous ones like I see here). Years and years ago I quilted feathers on my regular sewing machine, but can't remember now if I did anything except draw and stitch. Now I usually stick to stitch-in-the-ditch... I'm no help, huh.

P.S. I had an after-market walking foot and it drove me mad, so it's gone. There is a craftsy class on free motion quilting that is undoubtedly worthwhile.

I found a hands on class was very helpful to get me started. After that, it is just practice, practice, practice. Start on somethings small, wall hanging, placemat, and then move on to something larger as you feel more comfortable. Or just start with batting between two pieces of muslin or a fabric with flowers or something large to practice going around. If you are going to do FMQ, drop the feed dogs and put a darning foot on. If you are going to do SID, I find it helpful to use a walking foot. Practice and I'm sure you will be surprised how quickly you pick it up. Relax and go for it!

You could start by doing some straight-stich quilting like SID or grid work. I use the walking foot to do that. You can even do some curved straight lines that way.

Or, you could attach your FMQ foot, drop the feed dogs and go to town. There are some great classes on craftsy.com that show how to do FMQ. The nice thing about those is that you can keep going back to the videos. I really like Cindy Needham as an instructor AND Leah Day.

When I teach my new students to free motion quilt the first thing I have them do is to quilt their name on a practice sample. If you can doodle, you can fmq. Another thing that is helpful is to leave the feed dogs up and set the stitch length to 0 (per Leah Day) because the little tap you feel as the feed dogs move helps them keep their stitches even. And remember you are already very skilled using your sewing machine and can do this too. Begin with something small, not only will you have less time and money invested in the project, but you will not have to deal with the weight and bulk of a larger item. You might be surprised how quickly you become comfortable with this new skill.

It sounds like your main problem is just getting started. If you can find a class at a quilt store, that would give you the encouragement and instruction you need.

oh I think I need to go home now and do this.... cough cough, starting to feel sick... lol.

I like to watch free motion lessons by Leah Day. She gives tons of good free advice for quilting and it all makes sense. I am in the practice, practice, practice stage of quilting but it IS fun and I am making progress. Just keep at it and if you make mistakes, so what !! Ask lots of questions to the ladies and gents on this site and it will all come together for you. Good luck.

start with small practice pieces -- a walking foot, feed dogs up for stitch in the ditch/straight line quilting
a round (hopper foot/sometimes called a darning foot/ or free motion foot) feed dogs down for free motion; curves, circles, stars, flowers...stencils,
practice, practice, practice.
as you become comfortable move up to larger & larger projects- before you know it you will be quilting queen sized quilts. if you have a local quilt shop check with them to see if they offer beginner quilting classes- a class will answer questions as you start, teach you to baste your sandwich in preparation of quilting- and give you a foundation to build on....but it is certainly possible to become a very good (domestic machine) quilter on your own

I just started doing FMQ when I got a new machine - years ago. I read all I could find and the first one didn't look very good but I improved quickly.I have made and quilted 92 quilts, mainly double and bigger I like the looks and I love doing it. I just do a large meandering design. I don't do anything fancy, no leaves, flowers. vines or anything. I was determined to learn machine quilting so I could say I made it all myself. I have two machines with 9" throats. My first new machine probably had a 6" throat. I always start in the center of a sandwiched quilt and make a big + and then always quilt next to quilting. I quilt border/borders last.
I only quilt my own quilts, only have to please myself, not always easy.