jokir44

The needle going sideways happens to me too even in needle down. Use your wheel to make the next stitch. I lower the needle almost to the fabric and then start stitching normally. I'm fairly new at fmq with a regular sewing machine and it does take forever. I'm still occasionally making crap but it's better crap than it used to be. Harriett Hargrave says it takes a looong time and not to expect perfection. That is a really good thing to keep in mind and I love it.

Jan in VA

Your fabric is probably pulled to the side a little bit and you can't tell it. Watch carefully next time you stop and see if the fabric is relaxed, with no minute puckering around the needle hole. You also might try very slightly wiggling the fabric back and forth a smidge and then letting it naturally relax back in to position.

Handling the fabric without moving it *too* much is the hardest part of the process for me.

Jan in VA

DOTTYMO

I have heard many tricks to help.
Practise the pattern with a pencil on a piece of paper
Hold pencil still and move paper to make pattern.many many times
Use 12inch sandwich blocks to practise one design at a time on. Join them together quilt style or book to see different patterns.
Ten minutes every day
Best one I like is a glass of wine before you start helps you relax.
My ten pence worth. Only do in twenty minute sections to begin with, I did 2hours and my neck shoulders were useless for next 4 days. Build up time spent because you get stiffer and tender as things go wrong.

Quilts rock

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions! I think I am going to get out all those little pieces of material that I don't really care for and make practise sandwiches out of them. I am bound and determined I will do this.

DogHouseMom

I know what you mean ... I had (and I confess on occasion still do) have that problem. When you start up again you have to be prepared to know what direction you are going in and for how long (is there a curve a 1/2" away), but most of all you need to press the foot pedal and move at the same time. If you don't ... you get what I call "oh ... that's where I sneezed" jumps. That's kind of what it looks like

It takes practice.

I made a lot of small sandwiches from my scraps (I never throw away batting scraps) and I actually practice stops and starts.

Stitchnripper

All above = great advice. I think mostly it is practice, practice, practice, and more practice. Sounds boring, but, to me it is encouraging to see even a little progress. If you don't want to practice on samples, you can practice on a small quilt for yourself - then you will be able to look back and see how far you've come. Also, I've found there is a "sweet spot" when you get the machine going on the right speed to the movement of your hands. I don't get there all the time, but, when I do, it is really nice. I do all this on a dinky mechanical Brother, no fancy anything on it. I get pretty good results. Not perfect, but, I am satisfied.

KalamaQuilts

A good practice project are cheap panels. Tons of different shapes to go around, different areas for different ideas.

knlsmith

You said for a couple hours? Maybe it would help if you broke it up into smaller chunks of timel Maybe 20 or 30 minutes then take a 10 or 15 minute break and walk around the house or step outside for a minute.
And yes, practice.

mighty

Be patient, do not give up it will get better and better!!!!

QuiltE

QuiltsRock ... Just thought of this and it's something that made a huge difference to my FMQ results. The ergonomics ... once I raised my chair up, I was able to see what I was doing better (looking down more so than on an angle/down), my shoulders were hanging down (instead of raising up as I steadied the quilt), likewise my arms were able to float (well not quite, but kind of!) on top of the table. All that added up to my being more comfortable and relaxed, and surprisingly, made quite a difference. For regular piecing, I find the most comfort to be a little lower than when quilting.

Are you wearing quilting gloves to help you with your "hold" of the quilt as you work? There's lots of different makes and types out there from "officially" labelled as such, to garden gloves to disposable rubber gloves. I tried all, and never liked them. My go-to now are finger cots on 2 or 3 fingers of each hand. Works for me, but not for others.