RugosaB

What works for me:

the feed dogs are down

The machine has a dial for presser foot tension, 5-darning. Darning is the recommended setting, but my machine does best at about 5.

I set the stitch length at 0

It has a button that cuts the speed in half, so if I remember, I push that.

I use a regular open toe foot! One day I was happily FMQ along, and the darning foot, it's an old machine, broke.
It couldn't be fixed, it's mostly just wire and the wire snapped in 2. It wasn't that old, I had been using it about 3 mos. It was $30!!!!!

I was so happy working on my project, and I thought this can get mighty expensive, let's give one of these feet a try. I picked the open toe foot because it seemed to give me the best way to see what I was sewing.
IT WORKED!!
That was a couple years ago and it's been working well ever since

Also, I do not hold the quilt like I see many do, wearing gloves and with both hands pressed to the top. I grab the left with my left hand, but my right hand is under the quilt holding a crease. Works for me.

donna13350

I can't speak for the others, but for me, I use the hopping foot, so I can still go in all directions, but with the feed dogs up, it kind of "moves" a stitch at a time so it's easy to get into a rhythm..it doesn't move the fabric along like it would with a regular foot..kind of hard to describe. I can gauge my speed by the feed dogs...just get some scraps and try it...can't hurt..but I like it so much better with feed dogs up!

DresiArnaz

I accidentally left the dogs up yesterday and it seemed to work better for thinnner batt so I left them up.

Cari-in-Oly

I love the postings where someone tells exactly what works for them. Reading through all of these really cements the saying, "The RIGHT way is the way that works for YOU."
I'd just like to add that what works on one machine may not work on another, even if it's the same machine. Go figure. I have over 50 machines, mostly vintage and have several good candidates for doing free motion work. I put two of the same brand, vintage 1950s Brothers side by side. For machine #1, what works best is a modern hopping foot, feed dogs down. For machine #2, the only way I can free motion with it without having all kinds of issues is to leave the feed dogs up and use the regular straight stitch foot. I also have to go slower so it gets boring fairly quickly.

Cari

Susanna10

Thank you everyone. I will try feed dogs up!!!!