Find a Pfaff dealer in your area and call them they can help you! Do a search, thats how I found one by me!

Find a Pfaff dealer in your area and call them they can help you! Do a search, thats how I found one by me!

I think PRACTICE is the magic when it comes to fmq..

Other things that have helped me is to have the bed of the machine even with the table...

tape a silcone oven liner or something slippery under the needle area (I cut a hole where my needles stitches)

wear quilter's gloves, they are expensive so I use garden gloves with rubberized fingers.

draw your pattern on large sheets of paper.. or just use the paper and a dull needle, with no thread, to practice..

do some every day.. not for hours, but some time anyway.

Remember you can stop when you don't know where you're headed next.

Your project will look better than you think it's going to when it gets all done. No one sees each curve and line, but rather the overall effect.

Oh.. did I say practice, practice, practice!!

Well, I decided my name and names of friends are already in my mind so I practised FMQ by sewing names. Then I could set the machine tension & all the other stuff correctly prior to trying loops, circles & stars. 6 months of practice made such a difference. I just kept practice sandwiches on the machine about 12" square. When filled with stitching I added a muslin to top & bottom and stitched till it got too thick. I use different color threads on top & bottom so I could see which thread caused the issues. I haven't FMQ since before Christmas so now I would practice again before working on an actual item. Hope this helps someone.

Instead of expensive silicone sheet, I purchased a yard or so of clear vinyl at Hobby Lobby. Cut it to fit the needle etc. It covers a large area so there is no drag on the quilt top to the left of the needle.
I use Mr. Clean blue & white scrubbers instead of a halo. Easily moves the fabric. I had some on hand and just I would try it. I liked it!
Low budget quilting here.

Wow..this is the best tutorial on free motion quilting..have been doing straight line quilting for a while but never attempted FMQ. Thanks.
Dottie

While practicing, why not use a water soluable pen (the ones from JoAnn work as well as the ones from a quilt shop)and draw your design on the fabric, then practice your quilting with the design on the fabric for you to see. That way you can learn to control the speed and motion with your hands, then when you master that, go to the free-hand design. BTW, it is much easier when you have on the quilters gloves with the rubbery dots on the fingers. Oh, yes, the next most important part is to have the quilt on a level surface with your machine. If it is hanging off the table the weight will distort the stitching.

What do you mean about turning machine around to face you? To me facing means like you have it when you are sewing. Do you mean having the end of the machine by the needle face you? I need all the help and then more so I want to make sure I am getting this right.
Thanks!
Robin in TX


Turn your machine around to face you. When you look at FMQ set ups like the Flynn or the HQ Sweet Sixteen or the Easy Quilter Track System, the machines are all facing you.

Let me know if you find any--I too am looking!

Do you have a stop/start button? I was having trouble trying to keep my mind on my foot pedal and speed plus my hands and i tried using my auto button at a medium speed and i didn't have to worry about my foot and concetrated on my hand movement. It seemed to help me a lot. Hope this helped.