Okay,

So how many of you quilt with a 1/4 inch foot with a guide. Before my Kaye England retreat you would have had to pry my Bernina #57 foot with the guide out of my cold dead hands before I would try the one without the guide.

Well as I was working I would take a finished block over to Kaye and ask how I was doing. She kept saying your sewing is great, but your seams are a little fat, so work on that.

So as I continued I asked Leslie a woman helping with the event about it and she asked if I always used my guide? I said yes, and she said I should try my #47 without it.

So I did and WOW...I thought it would be PAINFULLY difficult, but I decided to give it a try and see how it went.

I was floored at how much easier it is to see where your fabric is under the foot, the guide really just cover up what you need to see.

So if you were like me and never wanted to try it....TRY IT! You may be surprised!! :)

I completely agree, I always had one without and my new machine came with one that had it used it one time, and completely hate it, much prefer without

Mike, I know you enjoyed the workshop, but what did you think of our beautiful section of KY?

I can't use a guide. I like to see exactly where my fabric is going.

I use the 1/4" guide foot because of my arthritis. However, I enlarged the needle hole so I could move my needle over. Some patterns are strict 1/4" and others require a scant 1/4". By the way my Pfaff 1/4" guide foot does not wobble at all like on other machines.

ali

I LOVE my #57 foot, I will never give it up !!! I tried it without for many years and I will never go back... LOL LOL

I use my regular foot, but played around with needle position until I found a 1/4". Just have to remember to change the needle position each time I turn on the machine. I've goofed a couple times and had to "unsew"

I also changed from a 1/4" foot with a fence to one without. Finally figured out that the foot with the fence was a fat 1/4" not a scant or even a true 1/4" seam !

:D I was right there as well. Hey if it works for you that is all the matters. :)

The other thing that could have aided me is they had me move my speed lever to the middle position.....it's AMAZING how much control you gain by doing that :lol:

Well to be HONEST, it looked lovely driving in, and lovely driving out.... :P

I spent all my time in the hotel convention center, so I didn't get to see much, but driving and seeing all the barns and horse was nice. It's actually not to far off from Iowa, other than you have a much larger city section than we do. :)

I've been sewing without a guide but considered getting one. Now I guess I won't. Thanks for the advice.

I have both the one with the guide and the one without. I will switch back and forth.
I did find that when using the guide it helped if I moved the needle one space to the right.

I will try because i have been sewing w\ our quild and they said my 1/4" is to fat to... thanks for sharing.

i hate the guide my seams were never a 1/4 with a guide foot.

just a plain 1/4 foot for me.

I for one love my Pfaff quarter inch foot with the guide. Maybe my seams aren't exactly scant but it has never mattered to me as it was the same throughout my quilt and no problems have arisen because of using it. I do have the normal quarter inch foot without the guide but never did feel it was consistent or rather I couldn't make it consistent. Also use the quarter inch guide foot on my Juki and came up with the same conclusion. On my vintage machines of course I have no other option but to use the quarter inch foot without a guide. I will throw in I use my SID foot with the guide in the middle and just love that one also. If I decide to do decorative stitching in the side to side part of the ditch then I use the foot that accomodates the wide stitching.

So here again, we all find the way that works best for us and I love to read all the comments about this versus that and realize there is no right or wrong way for anyone.