Caswews

Practice, practice, practice and Patience Grasshopper ....Then you will be able to soar and wonder why was I so worried about learning this ...

sewbizgirl

Maybe it's your machine. Not all machines make it easy to FMQ, even with the "skills". You can always straight line quilt with a walking foot in the mean time, while you are practicing your FMQ skills. You can quilt many beautiful designs with straight lines. Hang in there and never say 'die'!

JoyceHoopes

The first time I tried to FMQ was a disaster. It turned out that my Kenmore, which was great for everything else, wasn't the machine to use for FMQ at least for me. Changed to a Bernina and did so much better. I never kept it up so would have to start the learning process again. Can you try using another machine.
Everyone is so encouraging and have given so many good suggestions; I hope they help and you achieve your goals. Just remember if you decide you are done trying, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you. It just wasn't meant to be.

JoyceHoopes

I forgot to mention; check how you are sitting and try not to tense up your shoulders. You have to be relaxed to make the process fluid.

DOTTYMO

If you are grasshopper you should be aware of the time it took him to walk on rice paper without leaving a foot print.
Joking apart I was advised to do about 10 mins every day. Keep improving daily. Also don't expect to be perfect the first time just keep going. A walking foot will do quiet a lot of gentle curves. My friend and myself both take foot pedal out and go with the stop go button and sometimes forget to lower feed dogs.
Watch as many videos and read as much as possible and practice drawing on paper with it at 90* to paper and just train your mind to the pattern any time of day or night.
Ps I always go nearly to beginning after a gap in quilting.

carolaug

I have watched several classes and they say to use a thin layer of 100 percent wool on top of the Warm and Natural batting. You still can wash the quilt and dry but take out when slightly damp. The quiltng will look fuller and hides the errors better. Overstock.com has full size wool batting on sale for 29.00 - I just bought two this morning and it was free shipping.

Buckeye Rose

Fmq is very much like drawing.....it takes a lot of creativity and the ability to draw whatever picture you see in your mind. For those of us who don't have that natural ability, we use stencils and mark the pattern on the quilt. I am somewhat in the middle....I freehand somethings and also use stencils for more difficult patterns. I find that following a drawn line while trying to keep my fabric moving at an even speed to be just as hard as creating my own designs. Yes, one day your quilting will look good. But the cost is lots and lots of practice.

xenodeno

Yikes! I'll be six feet under before I get to be proficient! Guess I'll settle for mediocre-to-good!

JoanneS

[QUOTE=qwkslver;6575953]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. QUOTE]
Wow - Great suggestion! I have saved mine from the beginning, because i want to see my progress. Now I have a use for them as well!