H. Viking Emerald
 

Hello ladies,
I have a friend that has the VIking Emerald, and she is wanting to know if you can do FMQ with this machine? SHe has already tried:n(1) dropping the feed dogs WHILE using her walking foot.
Her problems is this, her stitches are not consistent, some small & short, others long and loose.

Any suggestions on how she can do this?

Thanks ladies,
LaQuita

FMQ will not be done using a walking foot.Viking makes a hopping foot that is spring loaded for FMQ-need to get from dealer of Ebay and lower feed dogs.walking foot is for quilting layers with feed dogs up -feeding all layers evenly.hope this helps.stitches in FMQ will not be even in size for a while-no stitch regulator.

I'm not familiar with the machine you mentioned.

However ... when doing FMQ you do not use a walking foot. Instead she would use the Darning Foot or if the machine has it, a special FMQ foot. And yes, the feed dogs should be dropped for FMQ whereas they would be up when she is using a walking foot.

Stitch length is created acording to how she moves the quilt when she is working on it ... practice is what gets the evenness of the stitches

Well, I think you found the source of her problem. ;-)

Yes lower the feed dogs , but use the hoping foot as mentioned above. Also change the stitch lenght to 0. The stitch lenght will come from coodination of moving the fabric under the needle at a consistant speed coordinated with the speed applied to the speed petal. Yup.. it takes some practice to get this rythem.

I love my Vikings and the others are right; no walking foot. Have her to check out Leah Day's website for more infor on FMQ. I'm sure it can be done on all machines as long as you use the right foot. It takes time learn you have to practice alot . The walking foot isn't made to go in different directions (unless you have the newer interchangeable foot) so that would be a problem.

I have an Emerald and yes with lowered feed dogs and a hoping foot no problem with free motion. The throat size is not that large so maybe not really big quilts but lap size should be no problem. The suggestion to look at Leah Day is the best place to learn and then it's just practice, practice.