sewgray

The Machingers gloves and chewing gum. No I'm not kidding.
I read some where that chewing gum while doing a repetitive motion would help you keep your rhythm. It works for me.

bbeyes

I bought some gardening gloves that have the rubber bumps on the palm and fingers and they work great and not really expensive and the cotton backs breath so your hands don't get sweaty.

reach for the stars 2

I would say the gloves and just get the hang of moving hands with sewing machine speed. Practice is all it takes

phyllis b

Fons and Porter sells really nice gloves for less than $3.00

Arleners

I just use pieces of the rubber shelving material. I saw this on a segment of the Quilt Show on line. Can't get any cheaper than that!

AnitaSt

About the vinyl...at first I had a heavy weight clear vinyl that I got from Joann's (pretty cheap, I think). But then I replaced it (strictly for looks) with some heavy weight oilcloth that's wonderful. It's much heavier than what you get at fabric stores. There are a lot of sources online but I got mine from Mendel's http://www.mendels.com. It's $7+ per yard. I've had it on a makeshift kitchen counter for 8 years (remodeling is slow work) and on a picnic table for 1 year and it's in perfect shape. But get a solid or print without directional lines....the lines were too distracting.

AnitaSt

Oh, man. I first visualized the chewing gum on the fingers of the gloves!!! Chewing it makes MUCH more sense! :)

MAMMY6

Where do you find the silicone spray? I've looked and haven't found any?

livenlearn124

This thread has almost given me the confidence to actually TRY FMQ!

BellaBoo

What I use:

GrabberRoos: best quilting gloves on the market.
Halo: for small areas : Sharon Schamber's tool.
Super Slider
Bobbin Genie: stops bird nesting of thread at start up.
And a teeny tiny crochet hook size 14 to pull ends of thread into the batting. I leave a long tail so I can pull from a seam, that thread is never coming out.