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Just keep playing. The brain as well as the muscles must learn the new technique. Usually, about 8 hours of practice, spread out over several days, will do the trick. Post a pic when you can.
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Teeler, Boston and Jingle all make good points. And here's another tip if you're serious about getting better...don't answer the phone! Give yourself a break and set aside as much uninterrupted time as possible, relax and let 'er rip. I'll bet you get much better much faster than you think. Good luck.
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I have an older cheapy Brother that I play with for fmq. It doesn't have the option to drop the feed dogs and the darning cover plate always got hung up and messed things up. Now I never bother. And I don't change my stitch length. Just put the darning foot on and off I go. I will never win an award. But my quilts are made with love for my grandchildren and family. They don't notice or care. If I ever learn to get my stitches even I might be concidered pretty good. I would love the oportunity to learn long arm sometime. It's on my bucket list.
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Originally Posted by Boston1954
(Post 6027826)
I made two "quilts" of about 12 inches square with as close to solid fabric as I have. Then using a thread that was much darker, I just fiddled around attempting to make the stitches even. My goodness....I applaud anyone who can do that. I kept telling myself I will probably never use it on a real quilt. I just wanted to see how bad it would be. Not too bad, but gee what happens if you are in the middle of one and the phone rings? I did not do too badly when I could just go, but anywhere I stopped and started up again is pretty clear. Oh well, I was just playing.
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What a great idea to use old poly cottons from the stash to practice!!! My goal this year is to practice fmq more.
Originally Posted by Pamsel
(Post 6028059)
I want to see! I am hoping to make my first practice attempts this weekend. I found some old poly/cotton yards in my stash and I figured they would make a good practice sandwich for my first tries. I want to see what to expect (or aim for!) I know it takes a long time and a lot of practice to even get close to some of the beautiful machine quilting I have seen!
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One of the things I've learned - when I'm quilting and the phone rings, they can leave me a message. If it's an emergency, they'll call back.
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I'm learning to FMQ as well...bought lots of books and watched lots of videos...and love Leah Day...so inspiring.
But the best thing that has helped me is a book called doodle quilting. She recommend 'doodling' a lot...so I am spending a lot of time just doodling all over the place with paper and pencil. I'm drawing loops, l's, e's, backward C's, etc...and drawing lots of feathers. Drawing squares or triangles and practicing the filling them with feathers. shhhh...I even 'doodled' while I was listening to the sermon in church today....don't tell anybody...but this thing could get addictive. LOL |
Originally Posted by EllieGirl
(Post 6028270)
I have found slowing the speed down makes a big difference. When I first started FMQ in December 2012 I lowered my feeddogs and put the stitch length to zero. I have found though that keeping the feeddogs up gives me more control. I also found keeping the stitch length at the normal size helps prevent those kind of jerky, uneven rounded edges.
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I FMQed a quilt today following a pattern. I bought a stencil that was to be used with a pounce pad, but used a foam paint brush and cornstarch. That worked very well, but working with a pattern sure leaves a lot of threads to FIND and cut. Most of the other FMQing I have done has been free-hand, mostly circle doodles. I did a king size quilt and went from one corner up and down until I got to the opposite corner with stopping except for a bobbin change. That was fun!
BTW, I didn't think your FMQ was all that bad for a first (well, second) time. We all started there. The most important thing is to keep the needle down while you're moving the fabric or moving your hands. |
One of the things I posted on my Goal Board January 1st (creating a list of goals was an idea of another member on the QB) was to practice FMQ'ing. I have started with a few projects on my Janome but now have the availability to rent a LA for my larger quilts at a LQS... however, now when I practice on my own machine, it seems very awkward and now I have to re-train myself. I am anxious to try Ellie's suggestion about keeping the dogs up and stitch set.
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