If you have the feed dogs it doesnt make any difference what the stitch length is. I have heard that is better for the machine if it is on zero, but I dont know why.

really? when i first started doing FMQ i set mine at zero but took a class and she said not to alter it. we didn't. it all went well. now, when i remember i set it to zero but it really doesn't matter. it's how fast or slow you move the quilt that counts as far as how the stitch will look.

All I have to say is............you are in good company here!

no need to adjust your tension to 0. Put it back where it was and practice, you may need to adjust it some to the right or left, but never 0.

Welcome to the club!

Nah no fun at all ... I am doing the 10 minute blocks and some of them I forgot to be sure the unfolded edges are at the top !LOL rip rip rip .. Thank goodness I have a few seam rippers around !LOL

I am "home" for a few weeks and have been working with my elder daughter and granddaughters to make a triple Irish Chain with embroidered blocks in the "white" spaces. It should be a beautiful quilt when it is done, but...

I cannot be sure what happened to make one set of strips look like a tiered skirt. I had sewn several strip sets and they were fine, but the granddaughter (an expert seamstress) sewed two strip sets that had to be taken apart (7 rows of cloth sewn together). Of course we were using a very small stitch to make sure the blocks did not come apart when we cut them the second time. Ug! I cannot tell you what a misery that was! Even after they were apart and ironed, the cloth seemed stretched on one side. But the joy of working together was worth the extra trouble.

You are not alone, we all make mistakes. I've been making Bow Tucks bags since before and after a craft fair and I'm trying to finish up the last 3 orders. Well, I decided that I would be nice to my machine and clean out all the lint before continuing to work on the last bag. I cleaned it, put the bottom part of my machine back together, but when I went to put the bobbin case in I couldn't find it. I'm serious. I had to stop what I was doing and look for it, thinking it had fallen on the floor and since it was carpet didn't hear it fall. Nope. After cleaning up my sewing table, something I had been putting off, I found the bobbin case under some fabric my husband had put on top of my table after "helping" me look for it. I do remember the bobbin flying off, and the case probably went right along with it. So, instead of finishing my projects, I spent half the day "cleaning my sewing space", and as much as it was necessary, it's not my favorite thing to do. I should have waited to clean my machine, but instead had to clean my space. By the way, I'm missing the little screw that holds my throat plate on the machine. I put all the screws on my magnetic pin holder, but it is now gone missing. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to affect my sewing as it's staying in place pretty well without it. Now another trip to the sewing machine shop for a screw, last month it was a new light for my sewing machine. Don't beat yourself up, it happens to all of us.

On most machines it probably doesn't matter whether you change the stitch length to zero, but if you don't the feed dogs are going to be going back and forth needlessly. Why put wear on a part if you are not using it? Most manufacturers include setting the stitch length to zero as one of the steps in getting ready to quilt.

EllieGirl, hang in there. We all make mistakes, and I've certainly made worse ones that this. One time I made what was to be a very special suit dress and on the final step, slashing the button holes, my seam ripper got away from me and I slashed an inch beyond the end of the button hole, front and center. I didn't have enough of the fabric to replace that section. That was after about 35 years of sewing experience. Bleurk. One reason to love quilting: no button holes.

If you have the ability to drop the feed dogs on your machine (most new ones and several older models have that ability) then the feed dogs will not move back and forth and whatever your stitch length is set one will not be a factor.]