Stitchnripper

you bring your bobbin thread up and then can do a few set stitches or make a knot and bury those threads. Leah day dot com shows you how to do this.

Grammahunt

the best advice I got when I first started is this: "Just Do It".
Make a practice sandwich and go at it. You can only learn your individual best speed by doing it. No one on earth can tell you what you feel between the fabric and the needle. Have fun and good luck!

Jingle

I use coats and clark thread for piecing and their quilting thread. It works great for me. I do FMQ most of the time.

carol45

Since it really was intimidating at first, I set a goal of FMQing for 15 minutes a day on sample pieces. I tried different patterns on each sample, and in the end I combined all the samples using a quilt as you go technique to make a really cute baby quilt. It was the 15 minute limit that really made it work--even if I felt like doing more, I stopped after 15 minutes, so that I wanted to come back the next day. http://theinboxjaunt.com/ has great designs to try in a sampler. I did it with a friend who was also a novice, and we challenged each other. But, even on my own, I find doing many unpleasant tasks can be made much easier by breaking them into 15 minutes/day, and somehow they get done easily that way.

MarionsQuilts

I finally got FMQ figured out when I got a new sewing machine. I was struggling with my husqvarna and my new brother is a dream to do FMQ.

the key thing tho is to go slow and practice and practice and practice ... you've had lots of tips on here, and they are all great. Just remember you are learning a new technique and that your first attempts are going to be horrible. Practice on scraps and toss them (or keep one or two so you can compare).

I didn't keep any of my first one, I just tossed them. I knew I was getting better when my patterns actually looked like they were supposed to!

The other thing I did was buy some stencils and practiced my FMQ using those ... I also used contrasting threads (i.e. red on black) so I could see where my problem areas were.

Good luck!

Joe

I feel like I would have a hard time following drawn lines, but I may try it just to see. Here's a bit I've tried it is very rough but better than the first piece (which was just a bunch of circles and loops) trying to get a feel for it.

SusieQOH

Hi Joe, you're doing fine!
I was a hand quilter for years and find that FMQ has a learning curve. I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet but my tips are to use gloves with the rubber dots and a slider type thing to put on the machine bed. They both help to move the fabric better for me.
Everyone has a different way though. I'm just sharing what has helped me and I'm still very much a beginner at FMQ
Good luck!

Joe

By slider thing I assume you mean like a Teflon sheet or something similar? I have not done that but everything seems to be moving smoothly this far. Here's my new set up just for quilting I have a Brother for piecing.