When you are a home quilter who doesn’t want to pay steep prices to get a quilt long arm quilted, learning how to quilt on a sewing machine at home is your next best option. But sometimes learning how is easier said than done.

Your lines end up wavy, your stitches are all crazy different lengths. It always seems to feel messy, and you don’t know why you can’t results that even kind of resemble something a professional might produce.

So what is the secret to free motion quilting?

In a word: consistency. 

The trick to free motion quilting is consistency. Without it, it is easy to end up with quilts that look like children drew on them using a sewing machine. 

The problem is, there are no less than 1653820 reasons why consistency can be tough to achieve during quilting. (I’m pretty sure that’s the right number, I haven’t counted in a while :P)

What is often the number one reason why getting consistency is so challenging? 

Quilts are large and require a lot of effort to navigate them through a domestic sewing machine. Does this mean it’s impossible? Absolutely not, learning how to quilt on a sewing machine is actually fun once you understand all the forces working against you.

Once you understand why you are having trouble getting consistency, its WAY easier to adjust and fix the problem! 

So today I have a great list of tips and tricks to help you adjust your quilting in order to get a cleaner end product. Figuring out these hacks has definitely helped my FMQing improve over the years and hopefully next time you run into frustrations with FMQ, you’ll think of them and they’ll help you as well! 

Consistency in your movements = consistent stitch lengths

When you free motion quilt, you have to drop your feed dogs in order for the fabric to move in all directions through the machine. When the feed dogs aren’t there to regulate stitch length, your stitches can come out all sorts of different lengths as you actively feed the fabric through quicker or slower. 

What used to be a race to the finish through the machine is now a slow and steady kind of game. You can still run the machine quickly, you just need to move the fabric quickly as well. 

If you slow the machine down, you also need to slow the fabric movement down. This will make it much easier to get all of your stitches *about* the same length. 

The easiest way to accomplish this is to keep the machine moving at a slowish but consistent rate and then gently feed your quilt through in a smooth motion.

The better you can match up your sewing machine speed to your quilt feeding speed the more consistent and prettier stitches you will get. 

This is the step that takes the most amount of practice, but I have a few more tricks on this list that will make getting that smooth movement easier. 

If the quilt isn’t in a ball, you’re making it harder

If your quilt is laid out beautifully flat on your table as you try to quilt it, you are generally making things harder.

The weight of your quilt is your worst enemy when it comes to free motion quilting on a domestic machine. 

If your hands are straining to push your quilt through the machine consistently, you are very likely pushing against the weight or bulk of your quilt.

Before you start quilting, grab your quilt and bunch it up all around your sewing machine with as much slack as possible in all directions right around the needle.

Running out of room to feed the quilt behind the machine, weighing down on any side of the machine, or catching on any corners of the machine, are all things that are keeping you from easily and consistently feeding your quilt through the machine since they are creating resistance that you have to physically overcome.

Remove the sources of resistance, and it’ll become ten times easier.

The more fabric you have right around the machine, the less tension there is on the fabric as you try to feed it through making it much easier.

Mark out your lines so you know where to go

Many times, trying to free motion quilt without any type of markings is a like drawing a picture with your eyes closed. You know what you are trying to accomplish, but you can’t see where you are going, or the greater context of the picture so it’s difficult to get places accurately.

In the quilting world, this happens because you can really only see whats happening in the 3 inch square surrounding your needle. Since you can’t always see far enough out where you are aiming, you often head in the direction you know you need to go in, and then adjust for the point you really want when you get closer. 

This often leads to wavy lines and poor scale of your quilting designs because you have to correct your direction half way through.

If you use tools like disappearing markers or hera markers, you can temporarily mark your lines to have a visual line to follow while quilting. Getting stitch length consistency is hard enough without having to think about direction as well.

I’m not a huge fan of the idea of putting ink on my quilts, even if it will eventually disappear, but my hera marker is hands down my favorite tool for getting the highest quality quilting job out of my domestic sewing machine.

Check out the hera marker I use on Amazon here.

Choose the right foot for the job

One of the most surprising things I’ve found while learning how to quilt on a sewing machine is that sometimes what I thought was best completed with a free motion foot, was actually better off using a walking foot! 

Odd right? If you ever get into a situation where you just don’t know how to make it better, consider whether the design you chose should actually be free motion quilted in the first place! 

Just because you may be doing a more involved design doesn’t necessarily mean the free motion foot is the right foot for the job. Maybe your free motion quilting isn’t really supposed to be free motion quilting at all!

Are your feed dogs down?

This I do very regularly, I don’t know about you. 

I go to free motion quilt and realize I’m really struggling to get the quilt to move the way I want it. My hands starting to hurt from the effort. 

Then I realize my feed dogs on the sewing machine are still trying to pull the quilt straight when I’m trying to push it sideways. 

If you’re struggling to get the results you want, double check this common setting, it might be a simple thing working against you. 

Stop to get sharp corners

Corners in quilting typically need to be intentionally made to get a nice sharp point and if you move a bit too quickly and don’t have the slack you need in the quilt, you’ll end up with more of a rounded edge than a point. 

When you are just learning, and I even do this still now, when you get to a corner, stop the machine. Figure out a plan for where you are going next, adjust your quilt so you know you won’t have any restriction moving cleanly in the new direction, and then go. You’ll end up with much cleaner corners and lines that way. 

Decide on your quilting design ahead of time

I’m not necessarily talking about the exact progression of lines and in what order you’ll make them, but I’m talking about the general motif you are going for. 

I don’t usually find this strategy necessary with all over free motion quilting designs unless you want to get a feel for scale, but I do usually find this tip super helpful if I’m going for a more complicated custom design.

I typically use EQ8 to design my quilts electronically, and for this tip I usually use one of two features in it to decide on my quilting motifs ahead of time. EQ8 will let you actually design quilting motifs in the program and overlay them on your quilt top design so you can audition different ideas before committing.

The second way I use it is for when I really have no idea how I want to quilt a certain quilt. What I’ll do is actually print a full mockup of the quilt top from the program and then use different portions of the quilt to sketch different ideas, erase, and try something else until I find a motif I’m excited about. 

Side Note: If you’ve never heard of it before, EQ8 is a great quilt designing computer program for the every day home quilter to help you design your own quilts and it even does all the math for you! If you’re interested in learning more, check out my full walk tutorial here!

Having a quilting design ahead of time stops you from feeling that instant regret when you wing it and realize it didn’t come out the way you imagined, it also gives you a plan to mark out using those marking tools from earlier in this list. Everything working together for FMQ success!

Edit your strategy as you go based on what’s going right and what’s going wrong

Adjusting things as you go is just part of the deal. You start using certain points in the quilts as marking points for certain motifs and learn as you go that maybe that wasn’t the best point to use, or maybe you wanted those two lines just a little further away from each other the next time.

As long as you finish that small section consistently you can change it on the next section and no one will ever notice. 

And then you’ll remember that lesson for the next quilt. Eventually you’ll learn your preferences for certain quilting design aspects, spacing, scale, etc. which will make future quilts that much easier and quicker. 

Sometimes scale is the problem

Sometimes you get so wrapped up in getting every single detail in the quilting that you don’t realize your scale has drastically changed from where you started. 

This is where you start a quilting pattern that is spaced out, organized, and clear, and as you get further into the quilt, it gets harder to navigate, and its everything you can do just to get it quilted.

When you stand back and look at it, you realize that your pattern turned into a teeny tiny version of the original by the end. 

Or you go opposite, you have grand plans for great custom details, and want to get all the fancy parts in, when you finish the section you realize its hard to see all that great detail in there because it had to be so small and you have to downsize and simplify your design to keep your sanity.

In free motion quilting, more isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes simplicity and spacing is the key to great quilting. You want to have enough room between lines of quilting that the batting can actually puff so you can see that great texture. 

When you pack millions of stitches in, it pushes all of that batting down and you can’t texturally see the difference. 

So next time you are trying to teach yourself how to quilt on a sewing machine, see if this is the solution, simplify your quilting strategy, and find ways to put larger scale quilting motifs in your quilting design. Dense quilting will make large scale quilting pop out, but consistent high density quilting will typically turn into “filler” where it’s difficult to differentiate designs.

Look at where you are going, not where you are

This tip is a lot like driving a car. When you intentionally focus on trying to stay between the lines (where you currently are), you are more likely to slightly swerve back and forth over correcting to stay in the lines. When you then look up and focus farther away (where you are going), your perception allows you to smooth out the ride, and that over correcting goes away. 

When you are FMQ lines, the same principle applies. When you are looking at the stitching right under the needle, you are going to over correct to try and get what you think is a straight line. This actually ends up with you getting a wavy line from all the micro overcorrecting and prevents you from getting a good idea of where you really want to end up. 

When you focus on the end point, where you want your quilting line to finish, it is significantly easier to get a clean line with minimal wobbles, that actually ends up where you intended. The needle isn’t moving location on the table, the point is, so by focusing on the point instead of the needle, its way easier to get that point to end up under the needle without drastic curving of lines. 

Bonus: Practice on quilts you are excited about

This is something I struggled with. Why would I practice free motion quilting on quilts I actually liked?! I might ruin it!

When you practice on quilts you are excited about as opposed to swatches or other means of practicing, it’s tough to keep up the motivation to continue practicing. 

Your swatch could be beautiful, but the second you add the bulk of a real quilt, your accuracy seems to plummet making you hesitant to try again. By practicing on quilt tops you are proud of, a few different things happen:

• You get the whole picture of what it means to free motion quilt a quilt. It’s not necessarily because you are “bad” at it, you just can’t learn all aspects of it from a swatch when it comes to working with the bulk.
• You are motivated to adjust on the fly because you want the quilt to turn out well! After finishing a section, you stop, look at it, determine what you like and don’t like about it, and adjust for the next section. You don’t have to change your motif entirely, changing something like scale in the next section could take your pattern to the next level which you continue or adjust more as you go. Standing back no one will ever notice the smaller scale section among the bigger ones. 
• Using a quilt you like means you’ll want the perfect motif that you are also excited about. When you have a plan to be excited about, it no longer feels like practicing.

In Short

Learning how to quilt on a sewing machine is a skill that is learned just like any other, all it takes is the process of trial and error, and a little self awareness to know what you like and don’t like and why. Once you know that, its a simple task to go out and figure out how to fix it! 

So next time you have a quilt top finished and ready for quilting, try by-passing the all over straight line quilting or paying someone else to quilt it, and try the free motion quilting route keeping these tips in mind. 

Practice makes perfect! 

If you found these tips helpful, be sure to follow me on pinterest to get all of the latest and greatest tips, tricks, and patterns right to your home feed!