A chain-stitch quilting machine and method provide for driving the needles and loopers independently or out of phase, and particularly during the starting of a stitching sequences. Separate drive motors, for example, servo motors, drive a needles separately from the corresponding loopers, or alternatively, a single motor drives needles and loopers that are linked through a differential drive or variably-controllable linkage to move differently, for example, shifting the phase of the needles relative to the loopers. The feature is useful at the beginning of a stitch sequence, by driving the needles and loopers separately in a split start manner. The first stitches can be reliably formed by, for example, advancing the looper ahead of the needle to insure the looper enters a needle thread loop before the needle enters a looper thread loop at the beginning of a stitch chain. Then the needle and looper can be brought into phase late in the first stitch cycle and sew in a predictable fashion. The split drive capability can be used for stitch or thread control problems that might result from a variety of causes that might differ among quilting machine designs. A machine in which the invention can be carried out is disclosed in detail.