pbraun

I practiced fancy (FMQ?)ruler designs on a flannel rag quilt that is intended for use on the deck and a floor blanket for the baby. It actually was a lot of fun to do. I had about six different rulers, did quilt as you go, and cleaned out the dryer filter at least 6 times to fluff up the seams. Our adult kids all want one... I did try truly FMQing but felt a bit uncoordinated. Some of my practice looked ok, but not enough to try on a quilt I worked hard to piece. One of the difficulties with practicing is that it is often done on a relatively small sandwich so when I went to the larger multi-squared projects I had a hard time moving everything around. The best thing about my "practice" quilts is my family is impressed, doesn't look too closely, and enjoys the warmth of a mother's quilt.

juliasb

Practice, practice, practice! You are right that is the key. I have become pretty fair at FMQ over the years with no complaints from the Quilt Police. I am getting a new machine shortly for my Grace Frame and hope to be doing a lot of FMQ in the not to distant future.

Jennifer23

Caley, what kind of foot are you using for FMQ? Is it the kind with a spring on the side and an arm that goes over the needle bar? If so, you might want to try some sort of floating foot. The spring foot makes that jerkiness much worse, because it holds the quilt sandwich down for longer than the needle does.

My FMQ instantly got better when I quit using the spring foot. Leah Day has a video about how to modify a spring foot: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0LkHjDvzFQw

A ruler foot is also a floating foot. It's not ideal for FMQ because it's so thick it can obstruct your view, but it floats which is what matters. If your machine didn't come with a floating free motion quilt, you might want to invest in the ruler foot so that you can do ruler work in the future if you want.

CaleyH

Yes, I'm using the standard darning foot with the spring and bar that goes up over needle bar. I tried the ruler foot on my Janome, but it caused bad lashing.

Can you point me in the direction of what you're talking about. Just not the ruler foot. Thanks

Jennifer23

This is the one for my machine:
https://www.husqvarnaviking.com/en-U...oidery-Foot,-R

I also use the Fine Line Clarity ruler foot, especially when I'm doing a combination of ruler and freehand work.
https://www.sewingpartsonline.com/fi...ler-foot.aspx?

If you're getting lashing when using the ruler foot, you likely need to adjust the height of the foot - even half a millimetre higher or lower can affect stitch quality. (You would likely need to lower it)

CaleyH

The ruler foot I have was lowered as much as I could, but it wasn't enough.

Also, the bar where the foot attaches on my Janome is different from my Singer and Babylock. So I can't use my Singer or Babylock feet on my Janome.

I'll have to find a list of Janome compatible feet and see if any of them might be useful.

CaleyH

This is what I have for my Janome. Can't find anything else that will fit. I will try the plastic foot that is round and slightly cupped,with lines on it.

pbraun

I used a smooth sheet with a large hole for the needle so my sandwich would move more smoothly. Had to tape it down and it did move a bit, but at least I could move smoothly.