well...I decided that I had to learn to machine quilt - it is faster and easier (so I thought) than handquilting and more practical for donation quilts. I got my walking foot, asked a few questions from this group and even got some nice fabric sent to me . I watched the videos on sandwiching, got my clips and safety pins, my basting spray... had a little practice on another kids quilt - not too bad, but a little awkward - only one little pleat on the backside (excited and impatient so I didn't anchor the sandwich as well as I should have.)

..so...Got my top together, put the munchkin to bed, and thought " I think I will get this one quilted tonight so I can send it along this week to the charity"...
HA!
What a pain!!! i could not move that quilt through the walking foot without almost planting my foot on the machine and dragging the sandwich through the machine. I barely got through one time across the quilt. What am I doing wrong? And of course after all that dragging and misery, most of the stitches that I had to rip out were 'teeny tiny stitched too long in one place' stitches... I tried a sample before I started and it seemed to be ok then..but when I tried to actually do the quilt, it was awful.
IS there something I am missing? It is flannel on both sides, and I used a poly batting cause I wanted to keep it lightweight...do you think it is too thick? Wouldn't the walking foot take care of that to some degree? I was hoping to whip through a bunch of give-a-way quilts by machine quilting, but if it is that difficult, I won't be doing flannel again.
Unless someone has a solution, I will be checking out the 'how to tie your quilt' tutes instead of sleeping in this weekend.

Have you tried a darning foot and lowering or covering your feed dogs? I have had problems with fleece and flannel before. Sorry you had such a rough time.

Flannel on flannel and batting may be a little thick but my walking foot usually handles it OK. Do you have the quilt supported on a table to help with the drag. That's a lot of weight to have pulling on the quilt.

Lower your feed dogs, gently maneuvre your quilt around
(I use latex gloves on my hands to help move the fabric), and zoom away. Again, lower your feed dogs.

Heavily starching both the backing fabric and top may help everything slide better, and also keep the flannel from stretching as you sew.

The small stitches may be caused by drag from the flannel, both underneath and on top. It is possible to lighten the presser foot pressure on your machine? Waxing the flat surface of your machine or using a super-slider type sheet may help too.

If you can decrease you foot pressure on your walking foot, that may help you. If you've got a newer, computerized machine, you should be able to do this easily.

Also try lengthening your stitch :wink:

Flannel is clingy and the poly batting may be slippery causing the flannel to go one way and the batting another. The flannel is also thicker than regular cotton so you might need to lighten the presser foot pressure which can't be done on some machines. I can do it on 2 of mine but the 3rd one, it is what it is. If you can't decrease the pressure, definitely try starching the snot out of the flannel or putting on the darning foot and dropping/covering the feed dogs and do a wavy line instead of stitch in the ditch or go full blown free motion.

Another issue with flannel is the tremendous amount of fuzz it leaves behind. That may have built up in your feed dogs and walking foot causing them not to work as well or at all. You'll have to clean them often with flannel. Starching will help control the fuzz but it won't eliminate it.

thanks all, I may try one more time. I guess the good news is that this is not a crucial project, but every time I see those machine quilted beauties I wanna do it too. Am hoping for a local class this fall to give me some tips too...

When I am using my walking foot I let it do all the work, don't pull on the fabric, just guide it. I use a longer stitch length and don't drop the feed dogs, and just stitch away, removing pins as necessary. This may not be the right way, but works for me. I use a lot of flannel and always use a cotton batting. I don't like the polyesters any more. They tend to creep through the fabric over time and are just hard to work with. Bamboo batting works well too.

If you're feeling that much drag, maybe you need to put something on your machine that is slippery to assist with this. Try to make sure that your quilts weight isn't hanging. Sort of make a puddle and then have everything else on the table next to you holding its weight.

I agree with foot tension. Lightening this up should help also if you have that cabability.

Good Luck!!

I have a sew slip you.I got mine from a lady at my quilt guild. I do have a web address sewslip.com It's a slippery surface with a tacky bace to hold it in place.

thanks again for the info. It was very aggravating and since I had only machine quilted one other cotton quilt, I couldn't understand what the problem was. I think some of it might be the weight drag issue...and i need to roll it more efficiently to fit into the arm space...but I put it aside until the weather cools down, and made another top for distraction.

quilting gloves help a lot as well. takes the pressure off your shoulders and lets you guide more with your fingertips.

I have made many kid size quilts with cotton top, cotton batting and flannel backing. I found that pressing with lots of steam helps to keep everything from shifting. It flattens out, but then fluffs up when washed. I had a devil of a time with poly batting though, especially since you can't press or steam without it melting. You might also try to stabelize the sandwich by using dissolvable thread or 505 spray. I spray the sandwich and then pin the corners. That and the pressing is I think what helps me. Maybe some of that will help you.

1. loosen the pressure on the foot sometimes I have to go to the highest (meaning less pressure) position.
2. Be sure there is no weight drag from the quilt itself\
3. Be sure the walking foot is the right one for your machine and with a walking foot you get exactly what you pay for. I bought an inexpensive generic one and didn't know how bad it was until it broke and I bought the quality more expensive one. The difference was amazing.

remember with a walking foot you need your feed-dogs to be up (engaged) if using the darning/free motion quilting foot then the feed dogs should be down.
distributing the weight of the quilt is important to keep drag down and i nice even speed. you should not have to 'pull' on the quilt to get it to travel along...it should be inching along with just some guidance to keep it straight.
start in the center, go down to edge then turn quilt go back to center and travel in the new direction to edge.
it helps me to do one quilting line the full length then turn again to start the next one. starting in the center instead of the outer edge helps keep the (pulling out of shape) to a minimum.
practice, practice...