FMQ my first quilt!
 

I am learning free motion on my very first quilt. Phew! It's scary, exciting and fun all at once! I did the Star Bright pattern and used the walking foot to do the quilting on the star part. Now I am working on the wavy lines using a free motion foot. The quilt is huge and I am using a lovely green Singer 15-125 vintage machine. I didn't get a Supreme Slider but I have quilting gloves. The machine is in a cabinet and I have extra tables to the side and front.

Things are going pretty well but I have a question. When I have to stop to re-position my hands (and that's very often) I have trouble sometimes getting the start and stop point of the stitching to flow smoothly. I want my curves to continue the exact line-not to have a little off stitch when I didn't get it quite right. As Murphy's Law dictates, this is most likely to happen when I am crossing a dark square with light thread. Is there a trick to it?

I do stop with the needle down, The problem is happening when I start up again and take that first stitch. It's getting better as I am learning to come forward and continue the line at a 5 o'clock or 7 o'clock angle but of course I strive for a seamless transition.

I like the angle idea. :) In reality though my goal is to eventually learn to do smooth spirals and hearts and flowers and they all have curves.

Christy

Starts/stops are one of those things that the best advise is ... practice, practice, practice. At that point you have to take a deep breath, position your hands and make sure the quilt is position exactly as you want it so when you *go* ... it goes in the right direction (be that forward, backward, or sideways). Think about where the needle is positioned and facing, and think about the immediate direction you want to go.

My best advice is to keep practicing stops/starts on scraps. Build a bunch of scrap sandwiches (I like making 9" pot holders with quilt pattern *tests*). Your quilt isn't the place to develop new skills, so think about putting it away and practicing until you are comfortable with stopping and starting a curve.

Practice using the hand wheel to start your machine a stitch while gently pressing the foot pedal. The slower starts may help. Once you have that down, practice using the foot pedal only.

Practice starting in different directions. You may find that it's easier to start by moving the fabric forward than it is to move the fabric toward you or to the side. After a while ... it won't make a difference.

Good luck!

I agree with practicing it. It's definitely a skill. I find that it helps to re-position the quilt (when the needle is down), trying to position it so the needle will go back in pretty much in the same place where you stopped. Otherwise, as you've discovered, the needle "jumps." Congrats on your FMQ! It's so fun!

Thank you for the words of advice. It sounds like it's just a matter of practice, practice, practice! This is not a quilt that I'm overly sensitive about and the oopsies are really minor so I plan to keep going. I am learning a lot and getting loads of practice. I DID use several quilt sandwiches first, but they are much easier to work on and did not give me the full experience of working on a large quilt...moving the weight around, having it pool in my lap, catching on things... There are some things that I could only learn working with the real thing!

Most of the quilt is light colors where my light colored thread doesn't not stand out but here is an example to show what I mean. This square shows a couple spots that didn't transition well. One is at the lower left side.

You have to look really, really close to see the problems. Just keep going.

When you are practicing, make sure the needle isn't under tension. That when I find that it jumps. Repositioning often wiggles the fabric around and sometimes I don't realize that the quilt is pulling on the needle (even though it's in the down position). Sometimes I jiggle the fabric on purpose to make sure that it's not pulling on the needle in some odd direction. I know that's hard to describe...hope it makes sense...

You are doing a great job. Just keep practicing and all the advise is good.

I think it looks great. I can't even find the mistakes you are referring to!!