Practicing FMQ
 

Here are my two first Machine Quilting Practice pieces. I'm going to put them together for a sewing machine mat with pockets for the seam ripper and other goodies.

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I just got a couple of Zentangle quilting books. Is that what you're doing? If not, it certainly could be. It looks fun!

lookin good!! Keep up the good work. Practice makes perfect is what I always heard!

great practice pieces

Great way to make use of your practice pieces. Just always remember NEVER stop on a curve. :)

Most but not all of these came out of the 365 patterns by Leah Day. On the top picture is some of the straight line patterns that are suggested in the Machine Quilting book by Harriet Hargrove. Then the rest are suggested patterns by my teacher. I was told to stop at intersections but that isn't always possible with a small kenmore machine. But what is really hard are quilting when I get near the edge and can't hold on to the material.

Oh, I just was looking at zentangle on pinterest the other day! What books did you purchase? I'd love to buy them!

Looks like you just had all kinds of fun. Keep it up.

excellent practicing

Your practicing looks good ~ and what a great use of your practice pieces! Keep it up!

Quilting is such a great adventure and purely a individual way to express! Good job and like everyone else, we just keep practicing our whole life long! Kudos

You're on your way!

Kudos to you....Leah Day is the best, she makes FMQ look sew easy

Good use for your practice piece. As you continue to practiced-as we all do-it will help you see your progress. I keep my practice pieces and refer to them frequently when trying to decide what to do on the next quilt.

I think you are doing amazing.

Thank you for all the support. I really appreciate it. I found some old material and think I'll do place mats next as the next practice surface. Each will be different so it will be fun.

lovely quiilting

Good use for your practice piece.

One way to make it a little easier when you get to the edge is to cut your batting an inch or two larger than the fabric piece ...that way you have something to hold onto. Your FMQ looks good. I am still not to good at it myself but am going in the direction of modern straight line. Love Angela Walters ...dot to dot technique.

Great use of practice piece. FMQ is alot of practice, keep up the good work.

I love to FMQ. That is cool that you are going to use them. I have been told that you should keep your first attempts so you can go back and see how far you have come in a year or so.

Thank you all I'm enjoying it now that I've gotten started. I used up all the room on those two so I took a couple of days off to get room to cut and sandwich more practice pieces. This next one I'm going to draw on tear-a-way paper and then sew. Cross your fingers for me.

I need to follow your example and practice!

Good idea...

It's surprising how much difference there is in just the first month. It helps that I'm working on small pieces. I'll have to get a picture of the sewing machine mat now that it is all made up.

The only way to get better is to practice...and that's my problem....

Oh a nice way to use up stash, too.:D

What a great idea to make a sewing mat. With your smaller throat space have you thought about making your quilts with the QAYG method?

Very interesting quilting.

Thank you for the tip about leaving a larger batting so I have something to hold on to. That will help a lot. I finally had someone explain why I needed the feed dogs down in a manner I could understand. It's what was messing up my side to side movement because the dogs were still trying to go up the fabric. I'm having better luck now with the movements that require more control. I took a couple of days off because I was busy and when I went back to it the foot speed and hand movement were way off again. I need to be more consistant.

Thanks for keeping up with the thread. I hope some of you will show your FMQ too.

The very first quilt I ever made was QAYG also completely hand sewn. I think when I do the crazy quilt on my list I will definitely try that technique. But as long as I am working with low loft batting the rolling gives me plenty of room in the throat. But then the largest I am currently doing are about 34 inches wide and 60 inches long.

Today I was working on a mini quilt for Exercise 1 of Chapter 3 in the Art Work Book and decided that I wanted to quilt it with the multiple curvy lines and flowers pattern in the Leah Day 365 book. It certainly wasn't perfect but I still liked it,...until I found where the material had gotten slashed right down the front. I didn't actually say any four letter words but I must say I was tempted.

I need to do that!!

Keep up the good work. I really need to do this too!

Join the fun. We'll compare any progress.

I'm about to go to war with my foot petal. It just goes from not moving the machine to racing he machine with no middle ground. How am I supposed to get even stitches with that going on?

My mentor did give me some good advice when I am working with hi loft batting. She said to increase the stitch size to make up for the thread the loft takes up. No I just have to figure out how much that is.

Also on all future practice pieces I'm going to have one line of quilting done with my walking foot so I know the length of stitch I am shooting for.