Now I am retired I have time to put into my quilting. I really want to learn free motion quilting. I have read the books, started to practice, checked the videos online and now have signed up for a course! The piece of advice I come across the most is...practice,practice,practice. I'm willing to put in the time but would like to know from those of you who have been on this path how long did it take you before you felt competent at free motion quilting and in-control of your work. Sometimes my work looks brilliant (well not bad) but most the the time it's a disaster. Is it going to take weeks, months or years before I can FMQ with confidence?

The first few times I did it I was so uptight that it was discouraging. But once I learned to relax with it and not think eveyrthing has to be perfect, it became easier. Also depends on the equipment too.

if you work on it an hour or two every day it will take you a month or so.

if you only do it every 3 months it will take you years.

I just have fun with it...you get better as you do more. If you start with simple meandering you will love it...just make lots of curves, not straight lines. Here are some tips...http://www.thriftyideastoday.com/201...-quilting.html

I practiced 4 or 5 times a week for about a month. Finally had the tension and pressure set correctly on the machine and knew the speed at which to move the fabric. Then tried charity lap quilts. After 4 or 5 of these I felt comfortable. I am still a beginner at this stage. Have FMQ some tablerunners. Nice to FMQ on smaller items that do not have the drag of a larger quilt. I have to stop and take a break when I get tired as it really shows when I am tired. I do not have eyelashes on the back anymore, but the size and shapes of my designs suffer if I get tired.

It's getting better all the time. I am still only working on a standard size machine.

i have been practicing for about 8 years!

I started to FMQ just last month, stipple only and when I was done with my first lap size I think I had it. I do it all the timed now and am moving on to other designs. But, after the first 20 minutes I was in love. it,s great, so much fun. Now I find myself looking for things to quilt. I can! Piece fast enough. I think I would FMQ all day.

I have been quilting for about 4 years now. If you are artistic, it will flow more naturally for you. I learn by watching, so watching videos on quilting help me the best. I also use a dry erase board to practice(I can quilt better than I can draw...so the dry erase drawings always are worse than how I quilt it). Look up Matt Sparrow, he is an awesome quilter. He has live stream videos that you can watch online.

I'm still learning after about 3 years. I have vision difficulties as the result of a brain injury from a car accident 2 years ago and this has made FMQ challenging. I can do some lovely work on small pieces but moving a big quilt around is frustrating for me. I plan on sticking with it though.