Helen S

Thanks, Daisy Dew.

I use fabric-grade silicone spray on my machine bed and surrounding table so the quilt slides easily. Machinger's or similar gloves (even gardening gloves with tiny rubberized dots) are a must for control, and keeping your hands fairly close together, and a slow but steady movement all seem to contribute, along with LOTS of practice, to a better FMQ experience. I also use a downward pressure while moving the quilt sandwich, which seems to give me much more control. And don't forget the determination to succeed! lol I've been practicing FMQ for about two years, so as I said, practice, practice and more practice, and then do it often enough so you don't lose what you've worked so hard to gain.

I wouldn't suggest this to most people, but I get really annoyed when trying to see what I'm doing and got tired of fighting visibility with the FM foot, so I went to amazon.com and bought a different FMQ foot for my Janome 6600P that is a small stainless circle and has a small wheel nut at the top that adjusts the height. It does not bounce up and down when quilting, but rather stays where you've set it to stay. I really like how small it is and can see what I'm doing better, but had to re-align it at first because the needle didn't quilt line up with the hole. Once I did that with two pairs of pliers, all went well. I will say, though, that the new foot is not happy with embroidery threads. For some strange reason the thread always breaks every so often, but only when using that particular foot, so I use the old foot that came with the machine when I use the embroidery threads for top stitching.

Happy Quilting!

Helen S

quilters guilt LOL! Yes, meant quilters GUILD. lol

solstice3

Beautiful work

Auntie Em

Beautiful....great jobs!!!