Oh :::shudder::: I have one of my 1st FMQ practice pieces to remind me of how far I have come! I agree that practice is the key. The other two things that helped me was www.pajamaquilter.com and a white board. You can practice your 'doodling' with out being afraid of messing up fabric. What ever you can draw (don't put your elbow down), you can quilt. Be brave...oh..and some music and a glass of wine don't hurt!

The best piece of advice I've received for fmq was to worry only about the part of the quilt that's under the needle. The rest will take care of itself. Much easier to quilt one block than to think of the whole project!
The other thing that I think helps is give yourself a project that you can "play" on. In other words, anything goes and you don't have to worry about it being perfect. My scrappy log cabin was my latest "play time" quilt. I have many!
Another suggestion is to pick a shape that's easy for you to use. I can make hearts til the cows come home. I now make really neat vines with heart shaped leaves.
Best suggestion I can give you - Go have some fun! Play!
P.S. I remember in a much earlier discussion of fmq someone suggesting a glass of wine and music.

Something that helped me is to 'doodle' the design you want to make on paper. I went through pages & pages of paper doodling it. I can't make round circles to save my soul, but practicing on paper & then on a quilt sandwich helps a lot. It's like playing the piano - the more you practice, the better & more confident you get.

I'm also new to quilting and get lost with some words. What is Ditch quilting? What does SID stand for? I think I have figured out the rest.

I'm still in the dark about what all those initials mean. In your letter you used fmq and lol. I draw a blank on both and others that I have seen in other links. HELP! Maybe I should ask Konstantin for a vocabulary abbreviation list. Flo. [email protected]

Potholders are a great way to practice different quilting techniques. If they don't come out "quite right" , they still serve a purpose.

I was really bad, wouldn't drop my feed dogs for anything, even after taking some FMQ classes. I finally decided to trace on tissue paper, pin to quilt, drop feed dogs, & go for it on some quickly pieced donation quilts made from scraps. I had to pick paper off, but quilting looked great! That was about 3 years ago, & I still do it to this day. I just found that for me, no amount of practice worked...this does! Good luck!!!

I'm still in the dark about what all those initials mean. In your letter you used fmq and lol. I draw a blank on both and others that I have seen in other links. HELP! Maybe I should ask Konstantin for a vocabulary abbreviation list. Flo. [email protected]

fmq = free motion quilting. lol = laugh out loud

try this link:
http://quiltinggallery.com/2009/04/2...ters-acronyms/

Thank you for the resource. I will print it out so I can refer to it later.