I got a Babylock Espire and it comes with a lot of fancy stitches and has a larger throat so I was excited that I would be able to do most of my own quilting.

However, as I played around with the different stitches most are on a scale too small to use for quilting and almost all of them have a stitch length really short (and very tight) that doesn't seem to be appropriate for quilting either. I have checked and there is no way to adjust the stitch length on the decorative stitiches.

Is your machine like this, and if so, do you use these for quilting anyway or do you just stick to "in the ditch" straight stitch or FM?

I have 5 machines that have fancy stitches and this is a problem with every one of them. I'm told by dealers that this is the only way the integrity of the design can be maintained.I would love to be able to do a serpentine stitch over the ditch on my children's charity quilts but the 2.2 default setting is just too tight. I did see a $2,000 Brother that allowed more flexibility but it just had the standard size harp and was too small for quilting.

I have Vikings and they have needle position options as well as length options. Some are less adjustable than others. Sometimes I do use them for an alternative to SID. I recently got a long arm machine so am not using the sewing machine for quilting any more. I actually used the embroidery unit to quilt more than using the fancy stitches.

mine are like that, as well. i sometimes use one of the stitches to sew down my binding on the front when i am in a rush.

That is odd that you can't adjust them. I have a Brother machine, they make Babylock and my deco stitches are adjustable. I'm not familiar with your machine to tell you how to adjust them.

I pulled out my manual for my PC6500. All my stitches are adjustable except the width on the straight stitch and something on the buttonhole I'll never use anyway. I have to adjust them manually by pressing the width and length buttons but they have quite a bit of adjust-ability.

Most machines will only let you go up to 7mm or 9mm stitches depending on the machine. There is no way to get them bigger than that size. They are meant more for decoration on sewing little things or would be good for crazy quilting stitches, not really made for FMQ on any machine if that's what you are trying to use them for

My Kenmore has a few decorative stitches. They are adjustable and yes, I have used them for quilting. My free motion stitches are so tiny and tight...LOL...and I use them...LOL. So if you want, why not make some small projects, quilt them with your special stitches and then decide if you would like to quilt a whole quilt.

I have a very inexpensive Brother cs6000i which has many decorative stitches. I have used several of them for my quilting as they allow a wide adjustment of size width & length). The only thing I have to be careful with is, not all of them can be done with the walking foot so I have to remembe to use a regular foot.

There are some of my JAnome that can't be changed, but most of them can, I have to make the adjustments.

I can adjust them on my Pfaff.