Carly in SC

Then, try to find a class.

The best thing I can recommend is to go to Patsy Thompson's website and watch her free videos about FMQ and then order one and practice, practice, practice. She is very very clear about what is needed. Another young lady that is awesome is Leah Day and she goes by Daystyle Designs. She has tons of videos as she did a design a day last year in fmq.

Best of luck,
Carly in SC

peacequiltingnana

Instead of taking a class at a quilt show this year, I spent my money on a couple of Patsy Thompson CD's on FMQ. I have watched them repeatedly and before I ever touch the machine I practice with pencil and paper and go over it in my brain again and again. It's helping and I am slowly getting better at more than meandering. Leah Day also has FMQ tutes on her site and You Tube. There's lots of information out there to help you and much of it is free.

FrankB

what design are you going to use on you Lone Star? I just finished pieceing one and backing and batting. I have started to quilt in the ditch, but need something for the corners. what do you suggest? Thanks

newestnana

I do it, although not well. Just finished an Irish Chain quilt, where I FMQed a Celtic knot in the centers...wow, what a challenge, since I had to retrace some of the places (in order to achieve the over and under look). To make it worse, the fabric was dark and busy, so I could barely see my chalk lines. I used straight lines (using a walking foot) for a big part of the quilt, and then an easier Celtic design in the border. Marked the border using chalk also...and it was blowing off as I went along. Whew! Glad when it was done.

I felt so-so about the effort until I washed it ... and discovered that most of the poor workmanship is lost in the crinkles :-)

Still, I keep trying. Still tricky getting the tension right. For some reason my machine (Janome 6600, with the blue bobbin case) seems to prefer polyester thread. I suspect if I get the machine serviced (timing issues) it might be more forgiving of other threads.

SOOOOOO hard keeping the stitches even!

TeresaH

I found the book, Free-Motion Quilting Made Easy: 186 Designs from 8 Simple Shapes by Eva Larkin, to best fit the way my brain and hands work. The idea is to break your quilting down to 4 1/2" square sections and use various combinations of 8 basic shapes (oval, loop, lopsided figure 8, tulip, heart, triangle, diamond, flower) to create your motifs. She starts off with the bare basics for beginners and includes lots of exercises. She gives diagrams for how to quilt each of the 186 designs and includes a chart of combinations with the page numbers of the designs. She then gives ideas of how to use the designs for all-over quilting, and includes a gallery of quilts as examples.

Denise S

Have any of you tried the preprinted backing fabric when learning how to FMQ?

SunlitenSmiles

needed is a list of quilt shops that teach and rent time on long-arm.......i have muscles on my musles on upper-arms from FWQ on DSM would rather have the full motion exercise of a Long Arm

missgigglewings

I FMQ on my Janome. I made a lot of placemats, pot holders and doggie blankets for a year before I set my needle down into a quilt! I am happy with that first little quilt and I am now working on a King size quilt with a drop on each side for my daughter. When I FMQ, I get lost in the rhythem of the quilting and sometimes I am surprised when it is done and I have to stop! I love it and will never let anyone but me finish what I start! I do use garden gloves, with fingers cut out and I have a PET (Portable Extension Table) that gives me a large quilting area to focus on.

rosimone

I know FMQ is all the trend and can be very attractive, however, that being said, I really enjoy putting my quilts in a standing frame and spending lazy afternoons hand quilting and watching TV at the same time. Qinters can be long in Colorado so summers are for gardening and machine piecing, winters are for hand quilting!

Skittl1321

I think that would be a good SECOND step, but a frustrating first step.
For me, tracing an exact spot is very difficult. Practicing with meandering, and free hand drawing was an easier way to get down stitch length and speed of hand/foot balance (I do not go pedal to the medal).

Many people using preprinted backing would be concentrating more on tracing the lines well, and getting the needle to go exactly where you want it is a whole other thing to worry about. But once you have a basic idea of how to get nice stitches, then tracing those lines might be useful.