Thank you ALL for great advice! I absolutely agree that I'm an over thinker, pick out any stitch that looks bad kind of gal (my dh has told me he thinks I enjoy taking my work out more than the actual quilting). I never seem to critique anyone else's work, tho. I know that's how it usually goes.

I don't plans to sell any of the machines, but am seriously considering selling the frame. And yes, my dh is a gem for putting up the frame and putting up with me!
I will give these ideas a go and try to stop over analyzing everything.

Regards, Kif

I was in a similar spot and here is what I did: I took some of those quilting designs (meander, swirls, loop-di-loos, feathers, etc.) and practiced them with pencil on a sketch pad. I have PAGES of these doodles and the more I did them, the more comfortable they became (and the more consistent). Then I took a table runner and did my SID first. I MADE myself just to get started. Pick one (or more) of the overall designs and go to town. It is very freeing once you jump into the deep end (so-to-speak).

I get it. My FMQ still isn't great and I sometimes have a brain freeze too trying to decide how to quilt. I found a FMQ pattern last night that makes sense to me. Check out Wendy Sheppard's blog "Thread Talk" re: FMQ. This led me to tutorial sit "Ivory Spring". Lots of pictures w/explanations. The one I like is called vines and something ... its on purple fabric and it looks like the letter "c" with a tale and they are turned in different directions. I can wrap my brain around the "c" better than a meander. Hope this helps.

Don't throw out your practice pieces! Your local humane society can use them for the animals so they don't have to lay on a cold floor or wire cage. And they don't care what your quilting looks like!

If I get stuck, I go look at how other quilter's have quilted the quilt. Sometimes the quilt tells me how to quilt it. I love cross hatching like Dina said but I also like to do what will improve but not compete with the pieced quilt. I like the look of tradition hand quilting so that is usually the direction I take with my machine quilting on my older model Bernina.

Feline--too funny and too true! Kiffie--please,please,please before you sell your frame, load it with either a quilt that you are willing to "sacrifice" or just a solid fabric and go to town! NO it won't look like Angela Walters or Judy Madsen or Amanda Murphy or Claudia Pfeil when you first start out--or maybe never. But you may be the next national level quilter and we'll all get to say, we remember when... Seriously! Nothing to lose here. If you imbibe, have a drink and relax and just play on it. And as others have said, sketching and doodling are a must, too. When I have quilts I'm at a loss on what to quilt (usually sampler quilts for me) I take a picture of each block, print it and then put my clear plastic over it and start drawing.

I don't throw out my practice pieces. I honestly don't have many, because I will take out the stitches and quilt by hand. That's one thing I'm trying to stop is taking out my work.
Regards,
Kif

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions! I have 3 different small panel quilts that I actually had layered ready to quilt and I'd stored them away and forgot them. So I have them out and I'm going to try out the various suggestions everyone has given me.
I'll check out Wendy Sheppard's blog. I love the idea of auditioning different designs using a clear template over the quilt.
Regarding the frame, I think I'm most worried about how long it takes and how difficult it seems to be to load a quilt onto one. But I'm certainly not accomplishing anything by sitting here am I??..:shock:

Again, thank you all for your ideas!
Regards,
Kif

Kf I have one more for you. I was having trouble with FMQ then I figured out that if I wrote a message or poem,
it was much easier. I sid to the width I want about 2" then use the edge of soap bar to mark what I want to say, and give spacing, keep the letters large, then simi follow the lines, and very soon it's just like writing just using your sewing machine instead of a pen. I relaxed and enjoyed myself. I then realized the words contained most of the shapes I needed . FMQ much easier now. Think of all the things you can say on a baby quilt.