Jeanne S

mine is loud too, but it works great for over 3 years now.

Onebyone

The repair tech told me to sew half of my normal sewing speed when using a walking foot. It should be a steady 1 stitch 2 stitch 3 stitch.... not 12345678 zoom stitch.

colorfulom

I found the walking foot that comes with the Juki 2010 to be clunky and noisy. When I was watching Jacquie Gering's walking foot class on Craftsy, she recommended a Janome walking foot for the Juki. I bought one, and found that I really love it. So much better than the one that came with my Juki.

asabrinao

The Juki walking foot is SO noisy! I've never tried oiling it, but am not sure it would do anything. Have not tried the Janome walking foot though.....

Holly H NY

My Juki 2010 walking foot was also very noisy. I oiled it and adjusted the presser foot pressure, and that helped.

colorfulom

I did oil the foot that came with my Juki (and have oiled all or most of the various walking feet that I have in my collection of at least five). Oiling did help temporarily, but the Janome foot is still much better. It's shorter and has a nice open toe, both of which make visibility so much better when sewing with it, along with the previously mentioned benefit of being much quieter.

QuiltMom2

I've been suspecting that mine is past it's prime for some time now!

toverly

I oiled my walking foot once. Big mistake. It dripped dark oil onto my project. I oiled it because a good friend went to a Juki seminar and the expert said to oil it. Maybe if I had oiled it all along, it would not have a build up of I think are filings like graphite and I would not have had the problem. But mine never squeaked like some of y'all have said your's squeaks. So if you do oil it, be sure not to put a precious project under it when you use it the next few times.

Geri B

amen to that...and I also lower pressure foot by one number..recommended by mfgr.

Bree123

Kimarene,
You asked about design ideas. FMQ does require a bit of practice to master. If you just need to get your quilt finished, I'd recommend doing an all-over meander (curved stipple) at 1.5-2" spacing. If you have a bit of time to practice & some money/fabric to make a couple crib/pet quilts first, here's what I'd recommend:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]553783[/ATTACH]

Not seeing the entire quilt, it's a bit hard to show, but since you have some leaves in the batik print, I'd definitely get some leafy vines in there. I alternated between curvy & straight line designs to help provide visual breaks and keep the designs from getting all muddled together. To make the quilt more masculine, you could swap the flower motifs for "messy circles" -- concentric circles that are connected to one another & are not very neat with lines crossing over one another -- OR you could try to do something more in a square shape.

Here are some additional "getting started" tips:
- Practice your design on paper first. I have an 11x14" drawing pad for most designs, but I also go to Teacher's Store to get "butcher block" paper (on the rolls) sometimes. They'll let me tear off some & sell to me by the linear foot. I also will take a photo of a quadrant of my quilt & print it out as a "poster" in MS Word (tape together to make it actual size) so I can practice on a full-sized version of part of my quilt. Another option is to get some Glad Press'n'Seal (or get some clear vinyl fabric) and lay it on top of your quilt to practice drawing your design with either a Sharpie (Glad) or Dry Erase marker (vinyl)
- For practice pieces, I'd start with basic quilter's cotton as it's easier to FMQ than batiks
- Do a practice sandwich that is at least FQ size with piecing & batiks so you can practice on something similar before starting on your beautiful quilt top
- Use same color thread top & bottom; cotton thread is easier to work with than synthetics
- Try a 50wt thread as it is less noticeable & you won't see your mistakes so much. For the first 250+ hours, I only FMQ'ed with 50wt thread, after that I switched to 40wt & now I sometimes will even use 28wt for motifs. But know that every little bobble will show up with the heavier weight threads.
- I'd do 2 colors of thread for your quilt -- a medium grey for the darker/grey areas and a mid-pink (like the dark parts of the light pink batik) for the pink areas. Typically you start FMQ with motifs, so that would mean you'd do the pink parts first. You can travel stitch in the ditch to get from one zone to the next. I would connect the motifs rather than breaking thread. If you really want to stick with one thread color, I'd go with a light-medium grey.
- Get some Machinger's gloves or something similar that has grippy fingertips. It's my one "must have" item for FMQ other than the darning foot.
- Fresh Microtex/Sharp needle (or Top Stitch needle, but it's slightly rounded & larger). For 50/2 thread, I use a 70/10 Microtex. For 50/3 or 40/2, I use 80/12 Microtex. With Top Stitch, I think you always use either 80/12 or 90/14. With batiks, needles dull faster. I'd recommend changing out the needle for every 6-7 hours of FMQ time.
- Be sure to LOWER your Top Tension. It typically should be between 1-3, but try a few different ones out to see what works best for your machine.
- If you have a high loft batting (most polys or Warm & Plush cotton), you want to lower the pressure on your presser foot.
- Be sure you have a Single Hole Needle Plate.
- Stitch length should always be "0" for FMQ. I personally prefer to have my feed dogs DOWN or covered (on my old Singer). Some people like them up. I'd suggest trying them down for the first hour & if that doesn't work for you, give it a try with them up. If you invest in a Supreme Slider, feed dogs need to be down or else they'll rub on the back of your Slider.
- As far as designs, if you can do a curve, a loop, a straight line, an angle & a spiral, you've got all the elements you need to create any FMQ design. Curves & loops are the easiest, which is why I recommend starting with a meander (curvy stipple) at 1.5-2" to start with. After that, I'd try a leafy vine -- possibly with some loops in it -- so you can practice points & the transition from a concave to a convex curve. Hearts are another good choice that are fairly easy to master. Or stars. You want to either stop or hesitate for a second at the point before continuing down the other side. Otherwise, the "point" will turn out rounded. Once you've got those down, you can do 80% of quilting designs with a bit of practice. Spirals are the trickiest & I would not recommend that as a beginner design.
- I like to mark all my quilts before I start quilting. It's typically easiest to mark them before you sandwich them together, but it's not too late to do it now. There are tons of posts on QB about marking tools. I would at least plan to mark your first 4-5 FMQ quilts. It will seriously cut your time by probably 75% because you can focus all your attention on your stitch length (speed of machine, movement/speed of hands) and just follow the lines rather than trying to transfer your mental design idea onto the fabric -- sometimes upside down or sideways -- AND trying to manage to keep consistent, properly formed stitches.

Good luck & happy quilting!!!