I've been trying to learn to FMQ. Everyone says to make practice pieces and keep at it. What size pieces did you use? What you do with the practice pieces then? There was a posting under pictures showing place mats, but anyone else have any ideas?

I was told 12x12 and you can make them into a quilt as you go quilt.

My granddaughter calls them "the butt thing." I have leather seats in my car and I use muslin and make a seat cover so you don't burn your legs in the summer. The first one I made I was trying out a walking foot. It's about worn totally out. It's about 18 inches square.

I have leftover pieces from cutting away the excess of my in-the-hoop quilt as you go and have been using them to practice with. I will say they are going straight into the trash. They are not fit for human sight. I figure if I practice daily, I should be good at it in about....5 years :roll: :? :lol:

mats for animal shelters? cleaning rags?

I make mind 12 to 24 inch squares. I have a stack of random fabrics and pieces of batting, and before I start on a quilt, I do some warming up on one of these. If the fabric is fairly nice, I'll sometimes turn them into random little "gift" things -- hotpads, pillows, eyeglass cases, doll quilt, baby burp pads.

Sometimes even the plain old muslin, with a very imperfect quilting effort, looks really cool when cut down into something smaller -- an i-pod case, wheelchair armrest cover, basket liner. I just keep the collection of efforts in a corner and pull them out occasionally to use for whatever creative project I've got going.
RST

Mine are 12 - 18" muslin. After I use up all the space I add another piece of muslin to the top and back and practice again. I can do the layering several times before it makes the needle unhappy. The larger the piece the more realistic the practice. After learning how to FMQ one has to consider how to handle the bulk of the quilt, but you don't have to learn both at the same time when you practice on a reasonable size piece. Mine are trash later.

Cut them in strips and but the seams and zig zag together,,,then make pretties out of the pieces

I use 14-16" squares or odd sizes if I have scraps of muslin and batt to use up.

You can put fresh muslin on both sides and use them for practice again.

When they're all used up, you could use them as stiffening for tote bags or book covers or bury them inside pot holders or hot pads.

Anywhere insulation is needed- animal kennel/hutch, gound sheet......