cjk

your machine might be like one of mine and it came with a plastic piece that snaps over the feed dogs.

SherrieDLux

A lady after my own heart with the scraps for Animal Shelter dogs, I save all my scrap material, thread and whatever doesn't go in my bins, then make dog blankets and stuff them with the scraps, the animal shelters love them and all the ladies from my quilting class do the same...

Baloonatic

I practice on Community quilts, those are given away to kids in need. Any quilting and batting scraps are saved for our guild's annual Dog Bed Day. We all get together one day in August and chop up the pieces we've all been collecting. Then we make fabric bags of all sizes and stuff them with the soft fluffy scraps for our local animal shelter.

Baloonatic

It's called a darning foot on my Janome. Have you gone online to find the owners manual? It shouldn't be too hard :)
Just like Newestnana, I too purchased a Brother at Costco. When I wore it out in just 13 months, I bought my Janome 760, and all the feet from the Brother fit it! Yay!

dotcomdtcm

Don't throw them away! Make potholders. I have a couple of whole cloth panels to practice on too!

sheliab12

A teacher and very good FM quilter in our guild took a class in Houston. They told them to use felt. It is cheap and about the right thickness and comes in many colors so you can see the trheads too. I have done this and she is right. However I still can't draw anything. I can't draw anything with a pencil so how can I draw anything with a sewing machine.

habell07

I recently started making quilted burping pads and use them to practice free motion quilting. It works great and babies sure don't care how it looks!!

Dkm

Under new thinking of quilters.....you do not have to drop the feed dogs and you do not have to do anything special for this to work. The foot you need is called a daring foot. It has a spring on it that allows the foot to move smoothly over the fabric. If you can put your motor at half speed this can help. Always sew with needle down. That's just a few tips.

Dorrie

Hi, I am an experienced sewer but find fmq difficult. I finally bit the bullet and attempted to quilt an appliqued penguin quilt that I made for my grandson......It looked very simple! Not. I worked very hard and was not at all pleased with how the quilting looked on the back: I had knots. crooked lines etc. Just terrible (in my estimation) Just before I tossed it in the trash I had a light bulb moment. I saved the day by adding another backing fabric. I pinned wrong sides together and stitched 3 sides, turned it wrong side out, closed the fourth side and topstitched the edge. At least it was neat. It did take a bit of time to make it tight enough but it works. Whew??? I guess the answer is to just keep practicing even on a small quilt and bag it if necessary. Good luck

Dorrie

Sorry..................I meant to say I turned it right side out!