Hi. I have a 3 or 4 year old standard Brother sewing machine that I bought at Walmart. I use it to do my piecing....but then I hand quilt after that. I have heard people talking about quilting on their sewing machines, so I did some research, and it seems that there is some kind of special foot that would allow me to do that. However....I have no clue what it's called or where to find one. Any ideas?

Thanks
Cyndi

I bought a "Quilting Foot" for mine...turns out it is the 1/4" foot for piecing. Not wasted, but not what I was expecting it to be.

Wow. I am glad you told me! If I had seen a "quilting foot," I probably would have assumed that was the right one. Hopefully, someone on this message board will be able to help us both.

I think you need to look for a darning foot for free motion quilting. If you want to stitch in the ditch I bought a generic walking foot for $12.00 at Joanns and that works on my brother machine.

Try walking foot, maybe.

I think what you are needing is a walking foot. Moves the top and bottom fabrics along at the same speed, which prevents puckers and pleats. Not certain if the machine you purchased will have one available. You might want to check the on line suppliers and make sure the one you choose will work with your machine. They are not cheap, so be prepared.

There are two feet that are used for quilting. One is an evenfeed or "walking foot" that feeds the layers thru the machine without the top layer being pushed forward. The other is a Darning foot that is used for free motion quilting. The walking foot is used for straight line stitching such as "stitch in the ditch" or a grid.

They sell a quilting foot for brother machines, unless you have an xl line machine.

Cyndi - if you purchase a freemotion or darning foot, you will need to either drop your feed dogs or cover them in some way. The instruction manual for your machine should tell you if you have the ability to drop the feed dogs. If not, you'll need to find a way to cover them since you don't want them interfering with your fabric while doing free motion work.

A good way to cover the feed dogs is to use an old credit card and cut out the small area for the needle and tape it down. I've had to do this in desperation when using a machine that didn't have a way to lower the feed dogs. Find out if you have a low shank or high shank machine and then you can buy a generic one to fit. Oh you also need to know if it is a snap on foot or not.