Help! What machine settings for free-motion quilting?

Hello! I'm fairly new to quilting but have made a tablerunner, table topper and another little placemat-sized project so far and have machine-quilted them myself.......with much difficulty and not such great results on the back of the projects. I have a very "plain Jane" Janome sewing machine with just a few stitches and had to buy a "generic" walking foot for it for straight line quilting but for the free-motion I bought one of the special feet just for that. However, I cannot find anything that tells what settings....i.e. tension & stitch length....to use when using these 2 different feet. The stitching on top of my projects looks fine but on the back, the threads look kind of like they are just sitting on top of the fabric and some are very "loose" looking. I realize it takes alot of practice to get the whole stippling thing perfected but I really suspect that my machine is not set at the right numbers to begin with. Can anyone please share with me what those settings should be? Also, this walking foot that I ordered and have been using seems to go along just fine for a few inches and then all of a sudden it just "tightens down" and actually CAUSES wrinkles instead of preventing them, as it is supposed to do. Very frustrating! It's brand new so I think it must also have something to do with my settings perhaps. Thanks for any advise/tips you can offer.:icon_neutral:

For fmq, I have my Janome set to tension (almost) 6. I have my straight stitch length set to zero (since your hand movements & pedal speed determine the stitch length), stitch width doesn't matter, and the feed dogs down. Hope that helps! Have fun! It will take practice to get the stitches nice(r).

You have to drop the feed dogs when you FMQ. The loops your getting on the back might be because you are going to fast. Mine does that if I go to fast. You don't set a stitch length when FMQ As far as the walking foot. What stitch length do you put it on. Every machine is different. I use either 2.8 or 3.0 with the walking foot

Thank you Patrice. Actually, my stitch length is just on a dial with 1 2 3 4 ....not able to get "exact" with it.

Thank you very much.....that is helpful! I cannot adjust the feed dogs but I do have a little plastic "cover" that goes over them....seems to work ok.

Hey Teresa, good answers on FMQ - And leah day has a tut for beginning FMQ on you-tube that's worth a watch.

I bought a generic walking foot for my Pfaff and thought it was the problem -- But it was a combination of my fabric "dragging" and not being level with my sewing machine needle area, and the tension too tight... I didn't realize with the top, batting and backing, you need a larger stitch to go through and come back up without making it "pinchy"... Some machines you can adjust your pressure foot "Pressure" -- This helped alot! See if your manual shows a spot (dial maybe on the back side?) where you can fiddle with Pressure Foot Pressure -- Another You-Tube find !

Good luck and hope you find your Sweet spot for you machine.

:-Debbie

Thanks Debbie....I will have to see if I can adjust that. By the way, I love your sewing buddy! :-) Mine is a little 6 lb. toy fox terrier named "Buddy"...lol.....

Hi Teresa.........Debbie mentioned Leah Day. She has really good info and shows how to adjust a generic darning foot for FMQ. This link has good info also.

http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransso...-quilting.html

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Originally Posted by TeresaM

Thank you very much.....that is helpful! I cannot adjust the feed dogs but I do have a little plastic "cover" that goes over them....seems to work ok.

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As long as your stitch length is set to 0 you should be okay. In fact Leah Day (She is a well known quilter and has many videos and a website) says she never lowers her feeddogs.

I have a Janome 6600. This is what I do:

I lower my feeddogs,
set my pressure foot tension to 1, some people set theirs to 0, but my machine suggests 1
keep my tension the same as my regular sewing- around 5-6,
set my stitch length to 0.

Thanks so much for this link........it looks like it will be very helpful!!

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Originally Posted by TeresaM

Thanks Debbie....I will have to see if I can adjust that. By the way, I love your sewing buddy! :-) Mine is a little 6 lb. toy fox terrier named "Buddy"...lol.....

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Aww everyone needs a good sewing buddy! *waving hi at your "Buddy" from Arizona

Stitch length depends on the machine. My Baby Lock needs the stitch length all the way to the top. If I set it to 0 then all I get is angry tiny stitches in place. At 6 mm I can get a nice FMQ stitch. Just try what works.

As for tension, I can recommend a trick I learned in my FMQ class. Take a practice sandwich and draw lines at consistent intervals across the sandwich. Mark these lines from 1 to the highest tension number on your machine. Then set your tension to the lowest setting and sew from the start to the line marked 1. Change the tension to 1 and sew to line marked 2. Change the tension to 2 and sew to the line marked 3 until you have sewn through all the tension settins. Now you can see for each increment what your sewing machine does at that setting and you can select the one that works the best.

This is a great exercise to try when you change thread type, or needle size, or batting.....That way you can test out your setup before you mess up the real thing.

This sounds like a FABULOUS suggestion....thanks so much!!