Well, for my free motion quilting, I'm pretty happy if the stitches are *mostly* even, i.e. no long half inch stitches and no tee-tiny *stitching in place* stitches. Neat, even stitches come with lots and lots of practice! Sorry, but it must be said. Sounds like you are approaching this resolution in the right frame of mind. Just don't compare your first practice tries to regular straight stitches from your machine.

If you can lower the speed on your machine that will help the process. Then slam the pedal to the floor while moving the quilt sandwich in a nice even motion. This practice is often recommended and I always do this as well.

Teresa

At this stage don't worry so much about getting a specific length as much as getting them all the same. You don't want more than maybe 6 per inch for reasons of durability and most people will find that they get many teeny tiny stitches at first because they are moving their hands very slowly while the needle is going fast. This is OK! Eventually, with practice you should be able to get a nice consistent 10-12 sts/inch like this:

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions.Teresa, you're so right. Everything I read says practice, practice, practice!! I do have variable speeds on my machine, so I'll try the different speeds. Thanks for the photo, Annie. I'll keep referring to it as I hopefully progress. Today it's -23C so I guess this would be a good day to practice.

Don't forget the "10 Foot Rule"--everything looks better from ten feet away. Remember to back away now and then and take a look at the whole thing; you'll feel better about your efforts.

Annie

I find that 10 feet PLUS a little squinting and my quilting looks quite lovely! LOL

Kate

Annie, I also admire your beautiful work! My question on the above pic - Did you restitch your sewing on the middle design in order to keep the stitching continuous?

Yes, when you do traditional feathers, you will have to stitch over some areas twice. If you look closely at the second feather on the bottom left, you can see where I veered ever so slightly off-line on the center vein. The neat thing is that in the shadow line created, it's hardly noticeable, even from close-up. The picture is pretty close to actual size.

Annie

My first project is going to be a snowman door hanging. As our house is about 100 feet back from the road I think I'll be quite safe even without squinting!!
PS. Annie, I have a question--was that feather design traced onto the fabric first and then stitched, or did you do it entirely freehand?
The thing I'm finding hard is getting my brain to make my hands change directions when doing a stippling pattern. Maybe I have a learning disability. LOL.

Feathers like this are drawn on. I used a very fine mechanical pencil.

It's typical to find yourself resisting the movement necessary for FM quilting. We are taught that we should never, ever move against the feeddogs, and especially not side to side and it takes a while to break through that. Try this: Make a practice sandwich and make big zig zags. Start with up and down ones--that's more natural movement to make at the machine. When you are comfortable with that, switch to side to side zig zags. Now slow down your hands to shorten your stitch length and begin rounding off the points as you make them. Keep making the points broader and pretty soon you'll be meandering.

Annie