Machine quilting help needed ....
 

I am free motion quilting , feed dogs down ..... Seems my stitch length is at 2.5 .... and I notice if I go too slow and make bigger stitches, they are loose on the back ......

If I go faster and make TINY stitches , they seem to "set " in better in the quilt ! My past quilts I have made with larger stitches , are coming apart !! Be it toe nail snags, or just wear and tear , after 3 years of use, the quilting is breaking !! Would putting the stitch length to "0" help ?!?! :shock:

if free motiion qulting - the stitch length has no function as the feed dog are down There is something else going on.

The speed of the machine and how fast you are moving your quilt are the two things that affect the stitch length.
Good luck resolving your problem.

Oh yeah !!!! I havent machine quilted in a year .... I was reading another post and they said they set stitch length to 0 ...maybe that is for using a walking foot , I forget !

I'm teaching myself how to fmq too and what I learned is that if your machine is going slowly--then you have to move the quilt slowly to match the needle speed. If you have it going fast you have to move the quilt faster. You are controlling the length of the stitch because the feed dogs are down. Stitch length button controls the feed dogs and since they are down the stitch button is essentially disengaged. I find that the faster my needle goes the better I am at it--I just have to make sure there is enough quilt puddled around it so it doesn't pull and you can easily move the quilt--for me pulling makes smaller stitches and sore shoulders.

sewing faster keeps you from breaking needles often because of the 'drag' factor. moving the machine in concert with the speed of the machine is the key to the whole skill. count in your head at a steady pace and remarkably, the quilting will get smoother and more even. this counting is something that many machine quilters (longarm and others) do either consciously or unconsciously. get used to doing it and you will be shocked at how much it helps the appearance of your quilting.

What am I counting, the needle going up and down? I like the idea of sewing with a rhythm

by counting, you are stabilizing the speed with which you move the fabric. it's not the needle, it's just to keep a rhythm to your movements, which makes everything smoother. i sort of use a 'waltz' count speed and as i move i try to get to the next point with the same number of 'counts'.... so the speed of my count is the same but one time i might be doing one, two, three, four to get to the corner but the next time i might need to use one, two, three, four, five six to get to the point, corner or intersection..... the speed is the same, the count is just longer because i need more time to get to the next reference point. as you move from one area to the next or one design to the next, the length will change but the speed will be the same. i use 1 to 4 as my 'goto' count, only lengthening the numbers if i'm in an area that is larger. you will have to to find your own speed on the machine...and you will have to find the right rhythm for you...consistency is the key...

Thanks for the quick answer! I just had a duh! moment--how in the heck can you count the needle speed when it's going so fast? I am getting better at consistent stitches, just have to watch the drag -- that's what's messing me up now. I am going to try the counting! Thanks again!

I, too, had trouble when trying FMQ, but after watching Leah Day's video I left my feed dogs up and set my stitch length to "0". What a difference it made!