judymay

I noticed a lot of you like to quilt using your featherweights and your 301 machines. Can you get good results
(no puckers) using those machines without a walking foot or do you use a walking foot? Thank you.

Quiltngolfer

I always use a walking foot.

davis2se

Do/did they even make walking feet that will fit those machines??

Candace

The FW has a walking foot that will work with the low shank and narrow feed dogs. April's 30 shop carries them. Unfortunately, the 301 has no great walking foot on the market. Yes, there are manufacturers that claim they will fit, and yes, they do...but ALL and I repeat ALL of them have too wide feed dogs. They don't align properly with the machine feed dogs. So, yes, you can spend $25 on the foot and use it, but it doesn't do what a walking foot is engineered to do.

I free motion quilt all the time with my 5, 301's. I love it for FMQ work. For straight, walking foot, quilting work I use one of my other machines.

irishrose

I wouldn't use a FW for FMQ, but that's just me. I use my 301 with a darning/FM foot. For SITD, I use the same machine with the feed dogs up and the tension backed off a bit if it's a thick quilt. I love the SITD foot from april1930shoppe. For me, this machine doens't need a walking foot. I haven't had one pucker, front or back, but I think that's more of a sandwiching issue than a quilting issue.

runninL8

i use my 301 for quilting all the time. I wish I had a walking foot for it - as I have noticed that the fabric on top gets pushed through further than the bottom fabric. Is there a way to adjust the pressure on the presser foot so both fabrics feed through at the same rate?

irishrose

runninL8, you can adjust the tension on the presser foot by turning the knob on the top of the machine near the back of the faceplate. That and using the SITD foot with the flange that sticks out have made it possible to have no puckers. I have SITD with the FMQ foot, too. It's a little harder to go perfectly straight, but doable. Have you downloaded a free manual from sew-classic or the ISMACS site? Lots of good info there, including embroidering with this machine. I used those instructions for thread painting the animals in some panels on a wildlife quilt.

Candace

Don't waste your money on the current 301 walking feet on the market. See my above posting. Do what Irishrose says.