Thread: this is really interesting...has anyone ever tried this...no foot when quilting?

http://www.robappell.com/taxonomy/term/19
Rob Appell has a video on this site that shows him painting his sewing machine! I gave my grand-daughter some stickers to decorate her sewing machine, found them at JoAnn's.

thank you - it is interesting and she has some really interesting presser feet also - the hoops sound reall good too - seems she has desigined some of her stuff for handicapped people to use on a regular sewing machine.

I hope some of you give these hoops a try and let us know how they work. Since I have an embroidery machine I can't really justify buying these. However, perhaps I could be convinced. They look like fun.

Thank you, Thank you, thank you. The minute I heard her (in another one of her videos) say, "Do not drop your feed dogs" I wanted to learn more. Free motion has been very hard for me. After watching a couple of her demos I'm ready to try again with a lot more confidence. Best Free motion instructions I've seen. I'm loving her information.

That stunning machine makes me want to take a painting class more than it makes me want to use hoops, but really those hoops are kind of special. They don't actually clamp the fabric at all. They just control it a little so that it can easily move in every direction, and then they simply scoot over to the next area where you need them to be. I'd have to try it to be convinced, and I'm not ready to spend any more money (or learning curve!) on a new technique right now. I believe it would surely be easier on a machine with a large table like the one she's using.

The odd thing about her use of those hoops on that machine is that they do seem to have a tendency to scrape the machine bed a bit. Since she painted the machine herself, that might not bother her too much, but it would cause me a bit of consternation. I wonder if she gave it several coats of polyurethane or what.

In 1966 my parents bought me my first sewing machine as a gift, and I'll never forget the machine embroidery demonstration that was done for me by the owner of the shop. This was a basic zig-zag machine, and he used a hoop while manipulating the stitch-width knob to make a satin stitch rose. He made it look wonderfully easy, but when I tried it, it seemed like the little trick where you're supposed to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time. It has to be easier the way it's being done in this demo, with both the length and the width of each stitch managed by moving the hoop. It's going on my "someday maybe" list.

I used to embroider on my kids clothes back a "hundred" years ago before there was such a thing as an embroidery machine. I used a regular wooden hoop with the fabric laying flat against the machine. I used coloring books and traced onto my fabric and then did "free-motion" embroidery with no foot. There wasn't even such a thing as stabilizer then, so I used soft interfacing.

As far as the painted machine, I find that too distracting. I like my white machine better.