While commenting on another thread, I remembered another tidbit I was fed. It wasn't really advice, just terrible counsel. About a year ago, when I was only a few months into quilting, I took a course on my machine since it's a Janome 6500 and good for quilting but I had never used it for such before. While taking the class I asked the woman, who also sold me the machine, how to do FMQ. She told me I wasn't ready to do that and do channel quilting for a while. My thought was, "If I don't practice at the FMQ, then I'll never be ready." I went home, took out my manual and practiced on any scraps of batting and muslin I could find until I felt secure enough to do it on an actual quilt and I never looked back--or called that woman for another class, for that matter.