[quote=ktbb]the straight stitch foot will work OK for straight lines or very gentle curves, but almost impossible to get stippling, etc done with it because of the difference in the pressure of the foot on the quilt...straight lines even could easily result in puckers since the top layer will not move as smoothly as the bottom layer thru the needle area. One thing that might...might work, is using a foot with a roller..some machines come with one - it's designed for use with leathers and sticky fabrics like plastics...the foot actually has a small roller in it that rolls across the surface of the top fabric, creating less friction. I've never tried it, but just thought that it might work.
Back to the issue of your walking feet breaking so often - are you using the right one for your machine? there are many generics out there, and they might work fine for some brands of machines but not for others. What machine do you have and which walking foot are you using?[
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, you are right about the straight stitch foot. I tried it just now but the sandwich isn't feeding properly. The small area I did already has a small pucker.
I have a Brother machine and buy the w/f at the Brother dealer. It isn't marked as a Brother foot so perhaps it is just a generic brand that she keeps on hand, although she did say the w/f was for the Brother machine. Many years ago, I tried a couple of Singer brands because I didn't have access to a Brother dealer. They worked, but again they didn't last long. One thing I found with the Singer ones was that the 'attaching' screw kept coming loose as I was quilting. That wasn't a problem with the one from Brother.