Buckeye Rose

I think it looks just fine, specially for someone new to fmq. My first attempts were very pathetic and nowhere near as nice as your pics. Keep practicing and you will get smoother transitions. make some practice sandwiches and draw some simple designs to follow....it will help (following a drawn line isn't as easy as it looks.....you have to so slower with the hands and the foot pedal).

tessagin

I think it looks great! Did you ever notice on a leaf that at the base near the stem, it is a little thicker? That is called a natural look! I see many members on the board who strive for perfection and that's ok. It's ok to be perfectly imperfect. Kind of like a signature!

Sandra-P

I don't see anything wrong with it. My FMQ is not even half as good as yours and I just keep at it hoping it will get better with practice.

mighty

Looks good!!!!

Milli

I agree with the other ladies, it looks fine.
And the gals here on the QB know, I learned something new everyday.
love you Ladies.

busy fingers

Keep up the great work. It looks good.

mraine

Good for you for doing free motion. Can not accomplish what you have done. Hand quilting takes too long. Send my quilts out to a woman that has a long arm.

Holice

It is not necessary to have an expensive machine to do good fMQ. It can be achieved on a home machine. To answer your question about thread built up. There is a certain amount that occurs when several points come together. I view this as whether it looks like carelessness rather than lack of control. I don't see your build up as effecting the sale of the quilt but other things. They are.....difference in the quality of your stitches. The quality of the stitches in the vine look good. They appear consistent and smaller. Those in the top picture are too large. They too are consistent in size which indicates good control but too large. I would rip these out. The other problem is the inconsistency of the shape of the leaves. This is distracting. You have several good qualities to your machine quilting. With practice in better control of the work you will definitely improve.

DOTTYMO

Oh don't rip it out. It is fine and you will get better but that will never be noticed. I only take out if I get eyelashes . That for beginning is great keep it up. When doing a quilt with free motion section try to jump about the quilt so all the first sections are not together and final sections are mixed with them. I did a table runner using bernina BSR for first time. Beginning all the holly leaves had round edges by the end the all had points . By walking around the edge of runner can see how it improves. Makes me laugh every time I use it. Nobody else has noticed. Not even sister inlaw who borrowed It.

faykilgore

I've removed quilting stitches before, but only when it's really bad, like when the cat jumps on it and my stitches go wacky. Differences in patterns adds interest to me. No 2 leaves are alike in nature, either. It's even more difficult to repair the section of quilting you remove and have it match. I laughed at Dottymo's holly leaves. I made maple leaves along a border and some of them are just hysterical. They will never be mistaken for computer generated. I've never sold my quilts, so there may be a different standard there.