Originally Posted by
QuiltE
Now that we know it's DSM, then another question that might help ...
... are you FMQing? or straight line quilting?
Mentioning the circle foot with the lines, I am thinking you are doing FMQing.
I know what you mean about the round ring guide lines ... I used to find they pretty much made me cross-eyed!
You might want to inquire if there are any other feet available for your machine, that might make it easier. One that I have seen there are no lines, and you use the outside edge of the circle/foot up against where you want to quilt, with the distance to the needle being the constant. Different plastic circle sizes to give the different distances. For the 1/8", maybe you could use the inside of the plastic circle to the needle as your guide.
To get more comfortable with what you are doing, you might want to just try doing it on a sample sandwich. Maybe a small quilt, to make it useful!
Good Luck!
I originally wanted to do straight line quilting, because FMQ is a struggle for me. However, I couldn't find a foot (Bernina 770) that had a clear enough 1/8" line that I felt I could use to quilt around curves and other irregular shapes. That's when I decided I better give thought to learning enough FMQ to do the outline quilting, but I seem to have the same issue. The underlying issue is user error and/or lack of information on how outline quilting is usually done. Thanks for the information!