Trying to FMQ and it's not going well!!

[Monique]

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and tell you something that isn't supposed to work, but it did for me.

I absolutely could not do FMQ with my darning foot no matter how hard I tried. I hate that foot. I remembered Sandy posting a video of her doing FMQ on one of her machines when she got the 3 foot frame with her new long arm. My comment to her was " Hey, you don't have to use a darning foot, cool." Well, it seems Sandy just forgot to change her foot. But I remembered that and I put my regular foot back on and I was able to FMQ the double cut layer cake quilt I made with a regular foot. I threw the darning foot on the other day and tried again, still can't do it with that foot.

Watch every video you can, practice on some fabric sandwiches first, then finally decide that you aren't going to be terribly upset if you muck up this one quilt top and jump in with both feet. That's what I did and was pleasantly surprised when it worked out a lot better than I ever thought it would.

Thanks Karen, I will try your suggestion.

[Monique]

Hi Monique, I'm not sure what kind of darning foot you have, but this video might be helpful. It is Leah Day making adjustments to a generic darning foot. I am just starting to practice a little with FMQ. I made the adjustments Leah showed in the video because my fabric would not slide underneath the foot easily. It does seem to help. I haven't done very much FMQ yet, so I am still a newbie....but I wanted to mention that video. Hope this helps....I might need some suggestions from you after I start practicing more. Just waiting for my extension table to come in so I can get more serious about practicing!

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...tion-foot.html

OH MY GOD!! It worked. I can't believe the difference. I am not good at it, and need lots of practice but at least the fabric moves and I am working on the tension. But all in all, NOT BAD!! I have impressed myself!!