Stippling/ Quilting Question

Hi everyone,
I am frustrated..... I've been trying to figure out how to stipple a quilt. Its my first quilt and I know every machine will be different and it takes practice and I have been.... a lot.... but I'm curious to what you're methods are.  The problem I'm having is the back of the quilt seems wrong. It looks pulled not even like the top. By the way I do have a free motion foot too. I'm just not sure if its the tension? The length of the stitch? I can take a picture of the back and show you what I'm talking about if needed. Any suggestions???  I have a Singer 7470 by the way if that helps?

Sounds like a tension issue and you might be moving around your quilt too much. Loosen up your needle tension and move your quilt less. Take it slow & relax. You will get it, but you're right- it takes practice before you get everything to fall into place.

I had a problem stippling my first quilt last month, and when I took the quilt to the quilt shop.  I asked "why?" this and that....   One lady asked me, "Do you have the dogs up or down?"  I felt so unprepared for that question, but it was the one thing that helped me "quilt" my project.

One lady suggested (using the walking foot) and "sew in the ditch" - this is a technique where you stitch in the seams of the quilt.

Another lady suggested that the stippling foot works best when you sew faster than slower.

When I returned home, I first "sewed in the ditch" for all of my seams (I made the "Yellow Brick Road" which turned out beautifully).  Then I looked up in my manual whether I could lower the feed dogs and found I could.  I changed to the embroidery foot and lowered the dogs and stippling became possible.  I discovered that the lady suggesting I speed up the stippling/quilting process was right.  The faster I went, the smoother and better the quilting went.  I only stipple-stitched in the border.

I don't know how helpful this is because I am still learning as well.  But the advice that was given to me was so helpful.

Good luck!