really?
 

With practice I will be able to quilt my own work? I've spent six weeks and a lot of money practicing and still not even close to being ready to do the real thing. I have made so many sandwiches I've filled a dumpster. Is it possible that I just don't own that skill? At what point do I cry Uncle?

Have you taken a class in how to do it? Maybe if you have a friend or an instructor watch what you do then find out what you are doing wrong, or are you being too critical of your work?

Hey! I'm in Michigan too! What part of Michigan are you in? PM me; if we are close I would be willing to help in person!

I've been told to hang in there .... and now I can see improvement (but still not as good as I'd like to be). I practice on mug rugs and placemats and small quilts for the dogs.

I bet if you look at your first attempt and then at your last you will notice a world of difference. You will get better each time. Greatness may not come for several years down the road but each attempt will be better than the last.

I too am frustrated by my lack of skill with machine quilting. I am determined not to give up and am continuing to rip stitches and re-do 'til I get it right.

There is a book titled The Outliers in which the author explains it takes 100 hours of practice to be really good at something. So, the phrase: practice, practice, practice is actually true. Of course, some of us take a bit longer.

Have more patience with yourself. I've interviewed some very good professional longarm quilters about their beginnings. Most tell me they practiced for at least 6 to 18 months before feeling comfortable quilting someone else's quilt.

I agree with the others. If you don't feel that you are making progress at all, maybe it's time to take some classes, attend some lectures, have someone come in and observe you and give you suggestions.

Only 100 hours? I guess it totally depends on what...playing the piano--or maybe one piece. ice skating? Wow..I'll bet those skaters practice hours per day! And they didn't just start last year. Now, writing the letter "a"...okay....but writing--as in writing a book?

I think I'd have said a whole lot longer than 100 hours.

Welcome back! I bet you won't miss the European prices, lol!

You can invest in a stitch regulator for some sewing machines. Very pricey, but just an idea. I recently tried one and what a difference. Some times using a doddle pad and just trying to make different "drawings". I've tried to quilt feathers for years - taken the classes from some of the best feather quilters and have finally realized I will never be able to do feathers. I'm sure there's a different explanation, but I am better with circle movements than line and angles. Some times having music on helps, some times not. Some times depends on my mood.

100 hours to be GOOD, many, many more to be an expert.

It absolutely gets better.

Are you sewing on a DSM, longarm ? Also if you could write or post pictures of what you are trying to do perhaps we can help more.

Practice on paper helps a lot. Pick a design and get comfortable with it on paper and then get comfortable with quilting it.

What thread are you using? some practice pieces with high contrast thread on muslin will show every wobble but the same design with matching thread on printed fabric will look better. Thicker thread will sit heavier on the quilt and show up more.

Play will decorative stitches a "grid" quilting too. Patience and practice. I am not good at it either but I don't practice it much.

sandy

I started on muslin and then moved on to dog quilts. My dogs are not critical of my work and love my mistakes. Muslin is cheap to work with and you might find a use for your creations. They work great for placing between your cookware and nice dishes to keep from scratching/breaking them. Hang in there, it comes to you. I watched a lot of You Tube at first. And relax. My first designs were so close together I lost the quilting effect, just squashed all the batting flat. :) You will get it. Don't worry, be happy.

Also, it sounds like you are discarding your samples? Just put another piece of muslin on top of your sandwich and have at it again! What exactly don't you like about your work?
I would also second the idea of taking a class. Don't know where in MI you are, but I took two classes on FMQ. It really is a skill that benefits from classroom instruction.

I'm in Kawkawlin just 5 miles from Bay City. I've shopped the quilt stores and purchase d a class online. I realize it will take time but I don't want to waste all these hours if I don't own the skills it takes to be able to quilt. I really appreciate all the encouragement from all the good people on the Quilt Board. Thank you all and I will keep on trucking.

Not to be discouraging but the Outliers book number is 10,000 hours for true expertise. If you do something for 10,000 hours, the author says you will truly be proficient at it.

That doesn't mean you need to practice for that long to be reasonably good. Be patient with yourself and don't compare your work to others. Just watch yours for progress and you will get there.

Remember when we were in grade school, and were learning cursive. How many years did it take to perfect our hand writing? You will get there, it just takes time, don't be so hard on yourself.

The thing is ... you DON'T "own" the skills right now. You won't "own" them till you learn them. Maybe you meant you aren't sure you have the ability to learn the skills, which is a different question, but you don't own them right now. I only consider myself as having, or owning, a skill once I've reached a point where I feel confident that I can recreate the end result, so it may just be a terminology/interpretation thing.

As others have said, it takes time to learn to do anything. To do it well takes a while longer, and for some, to be proficient can take a lifetime of practice. That said, we tend to be most critical of our own work. I did some FMQ in my last completed quilt and I thought it was ok but my mom thought it looked good. The person who bought it from me thought it looked fantastic. So it really is a matter of perspective.

And if you're throwing away your practice pieces, can you really say you're not improving? What are you comparing today's sample with to say that? I don't keep every single practice piece I do, but I do keep at least one every couple of weeks and put a date on it. I can take the samples out and compare them and see what is getting better and what still needs work.

Finally, if you're not consistently practicing the same design, you might feel like you're not making progress. I practice stippling all the time, because I figure that if I can master that one skill, I can move on to other stitches with more confidence.

The main thing is, giving up isn't going to get you where you want to go, so I'm happy to see that you've said you're going to keep trying. As I said before, you may not "own" the skills, but I'm sure you have the ability to learn them. :-)

I just recently had the opportunity to pull out the first quilt I did FMQ on. What a lovely experience :D I had just finished another quilt, and the difference between the two was amazing to me. I am definitely not a world class quilter, I will never enter my work in a show, and I don't know if I will ever do feathers (!), but I can meander, do hearts, leaves, vines, stars, etc. I am learning ruler work on my sitdown quilter, and each quilt I make (I've only done 8 or so FMQ plus maybe a dozen placemats) is better. I recommend not trying to compare yourself to Leah Day but compare to your earlier efforts. Do your quilts stay together? Do people like them? If so, you're doing great.

Pam

I'd check at the quilt shops and see if they can recommend someone for a one-on-one. One of the shops in my area offers individual classes for $30/hour. Not cheap, but an hour of instruction on YOUR machine would give you a leg up.

I wonder if you are starting out on too-complicated patterns? Starting with some really simple ones first then graduating up to more elaborate ones would seem wise. I have just been doing straight line quilting (for 4 quilts) and am now going to branch out to wavy lines. Hopefully eventually I will get to more artistic designs

you just have to have fun with it and not expect perfection

I think all the encouragement and positive feedback on this board is great. But I felt much like the OP. My FMQ skills on a DSM never progressed beyond the meander and definitely not on anything bigger than a child size quilt (60" square). The desire was there, the will to keep trying was there but the ability to improve was NOT there. It just was not natural to me to manipulate the fabric under the needle like that. I took an in person class and I really did practice but no way was I ever going to get good at sit down FMQ on a domestic or even a large throat like the HQ Sweet 16. My shoulders tensed up my movements were jerky, I caught myself holding my breath and a FMQ session usually ended like I had just gone 9 rounds with a boxer. I did ok on meandering small things like wall hangings and table runners but anything bigger "fuhgetaboutit". Then I tried a longarm. WOW! I was born to longarm. I hit the ground running longarming. I knew with practice I could get even better then what I did in my first LA class so I scrimped and saved for over a year and got my LA machine. The movement was natural, my drawing ability translated to the longarm movement and there was suddently a wealth of quilting designs available to me both FM and pantos. I know a longarm machine isn't in the grasp of everyone and not everyone is like me and took to it like a duck takes to water, but it may be something for you to consider. You have to quilt a LOT of quilts to make the investment worth it.
And last, there is no shame in admitting defeat. Yes, there are people (like me) that will never ever master FMQ on a DSM, let alone get good at it at anything larger than a crib quilt. So for those of us in that boat, we can stick to straight line quilting only with a walking foot (I did tons of that!)hand quilt (did a lot of that too, but it took me 3 or more years to complete a quilt) send our quilts out to a LAer (Yup, did that too!) or invest in a LA ourselves. And there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with any of those choices.

I have found that practicing on paper really does help a lot. I could not do feathers for the longest time, but after watching lots and lots of YouTube videos, a couple of Craftsy classes, and drawing on paper until I could get into the "flow", my feathers are now presentable. They certainly are not comparable to Cindy Needhams, or Angela Walters (those are the classes I took on Craftsy), but I felt confident enough to give quilted Christmas presents this year. But I have been practicing on & off for about 3 years (!) before I felt my feathers were good enough to put on an actual quilt. Some people have a natural talent and catch on quickly, and then people like me have to keep at it for a long time before it starts to feel like I've got it. So if you really want to quilt your own work, don't give up! You may be on of those people like me where it just takes more time. Take a break from practicing with your machine, and just use scrap paper. It really does help.

Hi Mrs Derf!

I'm in Omer, just about 30 miles to the north of you! My friends and I go to Bay City all the time! I too am a newbie at FMQ. I love it! However, I am still not so good at it either. If you want to practice on a real quilt, my recommendation would be to use printed fabrics or at least the same color thread as your quilt. Your stitches will blend right in and your friends will be amazed!

I saw an idea on this board to use a piece of felt in place of a quilt sandwich. So I bought a few yards at Walmart last week. It's really economical and you don't have to spend a lot of time making those sandwiches. I've been practicing daily and each day it looks to me as though there is some small improvement.

I've looked online for FMQ classes in our area, but I couldn't find anything. I'm going to have to ask at my quilt shop to see what they might know. A quick commercial for my friend Tina Bauer in Pinconning, MI. Her Bittersweet Quilt Shop is not to be missed. It's in a renovated old church right in town and it's full of wonderful things!

Susie

Get the idea of practicing on less quality out of your head. Fmq using wool batting with silk thread with a small size needle. Your stitches will look amazing, you can't even see the mistakes. I took a Diane Gaudynski workshop and using the best for practice made a big difference.

Also ther "Bump-Bump" feathers are much easier for me!

Between lots and lots of practice and being more accepting of my efforts so I practice in a more relaxed way, I think I'm actually improving my FMG! Don't let yourself get discouraged.

I agree that starting out with a very basic pattern, meadering or wandering is the best way to get comfortable. Personally, I had alot of trouble " freehanding " alot of the designs. For the life of me my head could see the shape , but my hands refused to make it ! What I CAN do, is follow lines ! I print out a design I like onto the paper side of freezer paper, iron it to my top and follow the line ! Once I take the paper off, you would never know ! I love to use pantograph designs, since they are made to be done without breaking thread !

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DON'T give up. Watch videos on youtube, take a class, and practice, practice, practice. One day it will click for you. It did for me as I wanted so much to learn feathers. Finally bam!! It happened.

Someone told me once to have a glass of wine. Never tried that but I know when I first started and even sometimes I freeze up and get anxiety. Then I discovered a long arm is easier--you don't push the quilt which is harder in my book. And sometimes I still have issues. I don't have a computerized long arm so when I do motifs, I often use the tissue paper that comes on a roll. It is messy tearing off but oh my, makes a beautiful motif. My advice is keep trying. Make lots of potholders and doggy beds. I still practice once in a while before I begin a quilt especially if I have issues with tension on the machine.

Are you talking about doing free motion quilting or straight stitching in the ditch? I will tell you what helped me. I took a class that was being taught by Harriet Hargrave. Google her name if you don't know who she is. What she taught me was that you have to find a slow but constant speed on your machine. Watch the movement of the fabric that the sewing machine is feeding by the feed dogs. You have to be able to find that speed every time you quilt. Then you know at what pace to move the fabric. Have you tried drawing lines and following them? If you are at the end of you patience, check any LQS and sign up for a beginning quilting class. With someone there watching you, they can probably help you with getting over the hurdles.

I notice in your post that you do not qualify what you are doing to practice-only that you have made lots of sandwiches (to fill a dumpster). Are you trying to just draw or doodle with your needle? Do you draw a design and try to follow it? Learning to machine quilt is a progressive activity in your practice. Consider a book such as Harriet Hargrave's book on machine quilting or a craftsy class. Leah Day receives great reviews for her free motion class. How about a class at a local LQS? Please don't give up but structure your practice to move forward in your pursuit of quilting.

If your goal is to do a quilt entirely by yourself, then you've gotten some great advice here. A class, a friend, a book, all can give tips for success. But if you really don't enjoy it, there's no problem quilting by check. I do mine myself but will switch over to check soon. I'm just tired of wrestling with quilts on my domestic machine. Some longarm work is so beautiful. I could never achieve it with my small harp.

This is what really helped me a lot! Then I found Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project. It was free at the time. I know she has signed on to Craftsy but you can still access the FMQP blog. She had a 365 stitches she developed. I picked out ones I liked that were easy and just practiced those. For some reason I still fall back on stippling though.

Are you doing FMQ on a DM? What kind of FMQ are you doing? IMHO- FMQ on a DM machine is HARD especially on a larger quilt. I do SID and stippling/meandering for FMQ. My attempts at other fancier quilting have not turned out really good. I know a quilter who has been quilting for 20+ years and usually only does SID. If she wants fancier quilting tem she sends it out to a LAQ. I personally like to keep my quilting to a mimium so the fabric and the pattern show better. Do not be so hard on yourself! you are probably better than you think!!1

Are we talking long arm or domestic? If you are talking longarm try paper pantos to start with. We comuterized ours after only a year and I love it, love it, love it. Intelliquilter It saves so much hard use of muscles and joints. And I love computers and don't have the patience to practice, practice, practice. Unless I am trying something new in the way of custom with the Intelliquilter then I love to practice.

Wow...great idea...I never thought of doing this!! (putting another piece on top of the old FMQ sample and redoing it) Also I find after I wash my quilt it looks so much better...I almost cried after I FMG'd a beautiful quilt top...but once I washed it I was happy with it.