Fmq
#22
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 548
I recommend a pair of grippy gloves, lots of tables and surfaces to make sure your entire project is supported, the drag can be murder on your body and mess up your stitching. I like Leah Day, Crafty Gemini is really good, Cristina Camelli on Craftsy is good, and Jacque Gering has two Craftsy classes on quilting with your walking foot that really taught me a lot. I'd only really considered SITD or simple lines with my walking foot, Jacque really
#26
Power Poster
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Mableton, GA
Posts: 11,335
What everybody said, plus practice, practice, practice. I am still learning my new to me PQ 1500. I have experimented with threads and needles. It works best with a polyester thread, and breaks thread sometimes if I move the quilt sandwich to the left. But it really boils down to practicing after you have watched some or all of the videos. I call it the "sweet spot" where your hands and the machine are in sync and you can hear it and feel it. I don't get it all the time but I know it when I do. Good luck, keep us posted, and practice, practice, practice!!
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Belen, NM
Posts: 1,353
I am learning to FMQ and simply don't have the feel for it that comes with experience. I bought some plastic templates and pounce to mark with. I have some faint lines to follow and I have learned a couple of patterns that I can probably do without marking soon. With the lines, I spend my "limited" brain power concentrating on even movements and stitching, not where I am going next.
#28
Member
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 28
To help with muscle memory of FMQ, you can also just print out some designs on cheap paper, use an old needle in your machine with no thread and practice following the lines. Once you are comfortable with that, then you can move on to the practice sandwich & thread. The first time I tried FMQ I worried so much about the layers of fabric & batting, thread tension, & trying to make every stitch look perfect that I couldn't relax and just try to get the movements down. Practicing on paper w/the machine & no thread removed a lot of the stress. Drawing things on paper as practice didn't seem to make sense to me since when I draw I only use one hand & the movements are nothing like when moving a quilt on a machine.
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12-12-2019 05:19 PM