Do I have to use a walking foot to quilt?
 

Is it absolutely necessary for me to use a walking foot to quilt or can I use other other feet?

IMO.......unless you have a Pfaff with an IDT a walking foot is a must for good results..........

I don't think I could quilt without a walking foot. I'm interested to see what others use.

I tried on my machine and it puckered as I sewed. I didn't like the look. I always have better results with the walking foot. My Janome has the Acufeed foot that is like a walking foot. It works great for quilting.

If I don't use a walking foot, it puckers on the back.

You don't have to but the results won't be as nice for straight line quilting. If you are FMQ you should use a spring loaded hopping foot.

I have found that if I *heavily* starch the backing (1:1 solution of Sta-Flo and water), spray starch the top as much as I can, and use basting spray for the layering -- then I can get away without using a walking foot. These things control fabric slippage and stretching enough for me. I wouldn't even try to do straight line quilting on my domestic machine without a walking foot unless I had done all 3 of these things.

A Walking foot helps feed both the top and bottom of the quilt equally thru to under the needle smoothly. That is why they were invented. :)

I quilted two baby quilts with a regular pressure foot and the did fine. I did use low loft batting and pin basted heavily to minimize layer shifting. So it can be done. But that being said, a walking foot will be worth the cost in the long run and it will make it lots easier and you will get better overall results.

If you are doing free motion quilting you use a darning foot and lower the feed dogs. Not great for in-the-ditch, but nice to do creative quilting. I don't like the walking foot, but now I use a Sweet 16 sit down quilting machine so don"t need walker, just a Line Tamer ruler.