:DThank you all for your kind comments. FMQ is a marmite thing - some machines are better at it than others, and you just have to play and play until you get the speed of the machine and the speed of your hands right! To be honest I have found out several things!
1. It is easier to hoop it rather than splay your fingers out or wear the wretched gloves. An ordinary cheap wooden hoop will do!
2. A straight stitch plate makes life easier, as does a decent free-motion foot with a spring
3. Dont spend a fortune on those 'slider' things that go on the machine bed - a non-stick oven mat for about 3 squids will do.
4. The slower you run the machine and the slower you move the fabric the bigger the stitch. The opposite applies.
5. Practice, practice. The youtube tutorials are good, but the people who put them on there have done it hundreds of times and are seriously good. It's very off-putting when you try and doesn't come out like that at all.
6. Always remember to bring the bobbin thread to the surface, take a couple of weeny stitches and then cut them off. Nothing comes undone and you dont get an unholy tangle underneath!
And as for the machines - The Juki is marvellous as it is so, so fast, with a straight stitch only, a free motion foot that weighs a ton with a huge spring in it. The old Bernina is neat and precise, but slow. The V5 is ok, but the feet are rubbish and the foot pedal is painfully slow to react.
I have started doing some 'sketches' as well - I have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
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