I am wondering since the sliders are so expensive and (I have had 2 get ripped up already.) and cannot get them put back together! Do you suppose a person could use a silicone baking sheet? I saw one and they are only like 14.95 and much larger than that teeny tiny 25.00 thing.?

They have very large slider out now but 50.00 :shock:

What's a slider?

:shock: that's expensive... What about vinyl? Like the vinyl you can get on the roll at W/M?

Before my machine was set in my table I had used the vinyl and my fabric slid easily.. and it's alot cheaper!

I use parchment paper.

I picked up one fo those plastic things from the dollar store that they sell for a roll-up cutting board put a hole for my needle and used painters tape to hold it in place works great and is cheap!

I guess I have to ask what a slider is also?

The slider is an object you use to help slide your fabric while quilting.It really does help but so expensive.And as I posted I have had two and they got caught somehow and ripped apart!And they were around 25.00 apiece!

Is that Dollar General or Dollar Tree? We have both of those here.

Hey I nevr thought of that!!! Will try that THANKS!!

HMMMM I never tought of that either!!!!Thanks fellow quiters!! :thumbup:

Sure! Lots of people use the Teflon oven liner sheets as a slider!

Well I went to my sewing room and tried the parchment paper but it sewed to the fabric and I had to rip it off??? I taped it down so what happened???

I feel like it could work but what did I do wrong? I realize it is hard to say since you couldn't see me.But I just don't get it?

I am thinking that will work better and for 14.95 over 25.00 or 50.00 I am willing to try!!

I must be really really dumb...I still can't figure what a slider is or how it is used for quilting...Is it for machine quilting?

Yes, for machine quilting. It's a teflon-like sheet that is adhered to the surface so the quilt sandwich slides easily as you quilt. Easy sliding makes machine quilting much easier, as it reduces drag on the quilt.

Were the feed dogs up or down?

If the feed dogs were up and you didn't cut a hole in the paper around the feed dogs, and your stitch length was not set to zero, the feed dogs would have lifted the paper loose from your tape and the paper would have moved along with your fabric as you sewed.

Even if the feed dogs were down, if your stitch length was not set to zero and you had not cut a hole in the paper around the feed dogs, the weight of the quilt sandwich may have pushed the paper down close enough to the feed dogs to allow them to move the paper.

No you are not dumb. That is how everyone learns.The only dumb question is the one a person doesn't ask :thumbup:

Feed dog was down.But I didn't cut the hole :oops:

I'll check back here in the morning sometime it is 1:30 a.m. here and I am soooo sleepy!Night all.

This is a slider:
http://www.freemotionslider.com

Normally for FMQ you just need a hole for the needle, but I'm thinking parchment paper is not as slippery as Teflon or as stiff as Teflon, so maybe the weight of the quilt in combination with manipulating the quilt for FMQ was enough to pull the paper away from the tape so it moved with the quilt. The feed dogs could have helped it along if the stitch length was not set to zero.

I have been using the teflon baking sheets instead of the slider for a couple of years now and they work just fine! I actually found five on ebay for I think it was $25. Gave away three of them to friends and they love it too!

I hated the slider because I had to remove it for changing the bobbin! How stupid is that? And I've found that spraying the whole area with silicone spray prior to FMQ works even better anyway.

a slider is a sheet of extra slick material that is positioned on the base of your sewing machine so that your fabric moves more easily as you do FMQ. Since with FMQ you have the feed dogs down, all you need in a slider is a hole for the needle to go thru...once positioned correctly, the slider provides an unbroken surface over which you can move your fabric. As you can see from the posts, there is a special product that is called a slider that is expensive, but many other ways you can get that slick base to help move your fabric move more easily.

I researched these on Ebay also but then one of my kids gave me a slider for Chrismas. Glad to know that it works. If this one ever self destructs that is the route I will go to replace it. I wondered if they would be as thick as the slider and they are much larger.

Here is one that I made and it works great. It is also larger than the original slider.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-74216-1.htm :thumbup:

WOW What is there NOT to love about this board.We have the smartest inventive men and women in the world on here!!!!

I LOVE YOU!THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL THE CLEVER MONEY SAVING IDEAS!!!!

You and me are not dumb. I thought we were talking about White Castle burgers. We call them sliders around here. LOL

great idea...thanks for sharing :D

That's really funny, I did give that a thought also. But then I said to myself..for quilting..no. Maybe it's because I have never done any machine quilting. I hand quilt all my quilts, that's why I don't make very many of them. Someday I will try machine quilting, there is certainly a lot of info on how to do it here. Thanks everyone