I've never echo quilted before but I'm about to start on baby quilt. Would it be easier to do it with the walking foot and knee raiser or the FMQ/Darning foot?? Thanks!

I'd say that unless the pieces are straight geometric lines, your best bet is to use FMQ. Using the walking foot will take much, much longer. Have you done any FMQ before? If not, do up a 12-inch mock up of a block, complete with batting, backing, and top. Draw a picture on the top and then practice doing some echo quilting before you try it on the real quilt top. This will get the kinks worked out and will allow your FMQ to flow smoothly. I always do this before quilting any quilt as a warm-up exercise and it has really made a difference!

Good luck! You'll have to post a picture when you are done. :-D

If there are a lot of turns I would say FMQ foot. I have done both and gentle curves are ok with a walking foot, but I sure got tired of raising and lowering it. I would say bast well and use the FMQ foot.

I agree, and I just learned that raising the walking foot all the way releases the bobbin tension, which can cause little thread tweaks on the back of the quilt. :|

Wow, thanks. I didn't know about the thread tweaks. I do have a knee raiser that raises it slightly as I sew but I'm sewing on a lot of straight lines and a few slight curves. One of the appliques I'm quilting around is a cloud, though and that is going to be the tricky one so I think I'll definitely be using the FMQ foot.

what is "echo quilting" ?

If its more straight lines then I would use the walking foot. Does your walking foot happen to come with a guide bar? If so, then I would set this bar to the width that you need between the quilting lines and it would make things much more even for you.

Good Luck!!

I'm looking forward to seeing the pics of your baby quilt when it's done!

Following the shape of your design about 1/4 inch apart several times like a ripple in the water when you toss a stone in.

I heard it's a great way to finish off an applique quilt so I'm doing it this way. The pieces are so close together that echo quilting is perfect, allowing only a few inches in between stitches to hold everything together. Hoping to start on it this afternoon, after I'm done homeschooling. (Fingers crossed, lol).