I too appreciate the skills of a LAQ. I am trying to learn and jumped in feet first, not head first, on a 96x96 Bargello. I have a DSm with a 7" throat. I fill like a can compete with Swamp People, as it fills as if I am wrestling an alligator. I am about to get there, far from perfect, but will be happy to finish. It seems so easy with just a quilt sandwich.

Skillbuilder is the practice panel I found. I have two of them, but I haven't practiced enough to start on them yet. I am still on smaller squares. I practiced for a while then started on a real quilt yesterday. Not ready yet! I had to pick it out and just stitch straight line quilting. I really want to learn to FMQ, so I will continue to practice. One of these days....

A great way to practice is on placemats, table runners, hot pads/potholders, Charity lap/baby quilts, small wall art. They are easier to manuever through the machine because of the smaller size. Scrap quilts are also great to practice on. Start with a simple meander or loop de loops. Draw simple designs like hearts, stars etc. and connect them with curved lines as you stitch. Harriet Hargrave says the simplest design to do is the clam shell. I personally had a lot of trouble with that.

It's amazing but what is really easy for someone else may be the hardest thing for you. Mine is feathers, I can swirl pretty good but my brain freezes on feathers. So for now I will just be featherless! Later if I get the urge I will practice again on them. If you belong to a guild, they are always looking for someone to quilt charity quilts and they aren't (normally) really picky. Remember we are our own worst critics, what you think looks like trash someone who doesn't sew will think is wonderful. Also when you wash the quilt it looks different - even better!!!

Well, here it is a year later and I haven't practiced as much as I should. (I don't want to ruin ANYTHING I've made ..... or bought) So, I've done block sized sandwiches, place mats, I did echo around those eagles on my hubbys' quilt, and recently wanted to do a baby quilt but couldn't bring myself to ruin it........ SO, once again I tried some swirls, pebbles, paisleys, meandering..... still horrible. Finally I echoed around dinosaurs on a baby panel. Very rough, but MAY be giftable. I need a class and a ton of donated stuff! Ugly material would work!!! Hahahahaha How are you all doing?

Glad to see your still working at it. I'm not artistic at all so the thought is daunting!

Just keep practicing. It takes a while to get comfortable with it, both with the stitching and with controlling the quilt weight. When I first started FMQ I bought a large stippling stencil! It just makes me laugh now because a large meandering stipple is one of the easiest thing to do.