walking foot

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Originally Posted by amartin24

This isn't decorative stitches but it does show a whole lot of quilting you Can do with a walking foot: Petit Design Co: 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting

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Thank you for the link, I'm going to make sure my foot does more than straight stitches, time to get the book out and see for sure. On my other Brother I could do a serpentine stich without any problems quilting layers together, I guess I should not have assumed I could with my new machine.

I bought a generic walking foot for my Brother and it worked fine until I tried to backstitch with it. Pretty much fell apart inside. My manual says to sew reinforcement stitches, not reverse to secure. With my new genuine Brother walking foot, I do that now. Just drop the stitch length way down. I cringe when I see those tutorials that use a walking foot & they tell you to backstitch (like attaching binding.) Pretty much can only do straight stitch & zig zag with a walking foot. The arm that attaches to your needle clamp moves the top fabric forward, so any stitch that goes in place or backwards is counterproductive to use with a walking foot.

I've never had a problem doing a backstitch with my Brother walking foot. I'll have to look at what it's doing the next time I quilt to see if it looks lor sounds odd.

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Originally Posted by kimsophia

Could you just put the decorative stitches on the quilt top sort of like a crazy quilt and then quilt the quilt sandwich in non-decorative stitches?

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What a great idea, thanks.

Some machines have 6mm or less fancy stitches. With those stitches, only the needle moves, and you can also control width of stitch by using the twin needle button. Since the feed dogs only go forward, you can use an open toe walking foot. SLOWLY. Pfaffs do 9MM built in stitches the same way, but walking foot is moot since it's built in.. You can use a twin needle for embroidery with those stitches. Makes a pretty zigzag in 2 colors. Stitch width usually limited to 4mm.

What you can do with these smaller stitches, is make a strip with child's name, or a saying, whatever you choose and piece it into the quilt.

You can do loose curves with a walking foot. There's books on straight line quilting that do patterns with slight curves that are quite effective.

If you are using a maxi or large alphabet that does require the stepper motor to move the foot sideways, then a walking foot is a no-no. It can't deal with the sideways motion.

The crazy quilt is great. I've done a lot of adaptations for clothes. I'm lucky to have 2 machines. Can piece on one and stitch on the other.

Actually the feed dogs on your machine only move back and forth, not side to side. It's your needle that moves to the left and right to make the fancy stitches as your feed dogs move back and forth. This shouldn't affect your walking foot.

No. Some machines like the Pfaff 2170 and older and a Viking 1+ have what is called a "stepper motor" It enables the feed dogs to move the fabric sideways. I've done Maxi (18mm) stitches on both and the fabric does move sideways. There are settings to balance the stitch. You cannot use a walking foot for this. The Pfaff has the Maxi stitches built in, Vikings had them on a card at the time. Both machines had a superwide foot for these stitches.

http://users.cyberport.net/~milnerwm...%20Balance.GIF (Older machine, but a few of us still use the older Pfaffs.)

I have it in the Pfaff manual. The Viking also moved the fabric sideways for wide stitches.

Otherwise, an open toe walking foot should deal with the built in stitches - usually 6-9mm wide.. Pfaff has a built in walking foot.

If your machine does super wide stitches (over 9mm) without using a hoop, then you need to check before using with a walking foot.

I bought an open toe walking foot for my Brother machine. It does allow for some decorative stitches, but nothing that takes stitches backward to form design. I have used it for serpentine mostly. As long as the stitches only go forward / sideways I'm good

As far as the feed dogs go, mine do go side to side because of some of the stitching that it can do. For example, I can do a complete square without ever turning the fabric because the feed dogs will move the fabric side to side.

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Originally Posted by lourixe

I don't understant why you say the feed-dogs move side to side. Mine don't. My machine has lots of decorative stitches, and all the time it is the NEEDLE that moves side to side. I imagine there would be risks of puckers otherwise. That said, my walking foot is a generic noisy thing and I don't use it much. I'd rather FMQ. I've used decorative stitches to decorate purses or sew binding and I used the regular zigzag foot. No problem so far.

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I didn't say my feed dogs move side to side I said that on the Brother site it said to not use your walking foot with side to side stitches.

(Walking Feet are not for use in reverse or side to side sewing as well as some built in stitches that include other than forward movement of the feed dogs.)