Piece exclusively with walking foot?
 

I am finding I am piecing almost exclusively with my walking foot. I have a 1/4 inch foot (bernina 450) but it still seems to "bunch" the fabric so the ends dont come out even--even on short pieces. I have tried adjusting the presser foot tension but it doesnt seem to have any effect. Anyone else use a walking foot for piecing? It works for me so will probably continue to do this. Just feel sorry for that cute little 1/4 foot not seeing any action!

Do you use a cheater on the ends.. a little scrap that you sew through before going on to the piece you are sewing? I use a walking foot for piecing and have a lot of little cheaters around, I use them at the beginning and end - it saves on thread too. There are times when I will use a 1/4 inch foot but the walking foot gives a bit more control I think. I am using a Husqvarna Sapphire.

I may try that. I'm quilting now but I'm looking at the piecing and it's not as flat as I would like.

yup ... I piece almost exclusively with a walking foot that has a 1/4" guide. I started using it when sewing long strips together to avoid fabric creep and the resultant "bowing" that comes with it. Now I use it almost all the time.

A taggit! Yep. Bonnie Hunter....or somebody....calls them 'leaders'. I keep a little box of them right beside the machine, especially if I'm chain piecing points or HSTs. I cut them from the trims when I square up my fabrics for strip cutting.

Jan in VA

I use leaders and enders and piece with the 1/4" foot on my Bernina, but my last quilt was paper pieced, so the 1/4" foot wasn't appropriate. I started out using the walking foot on that piecing, just because it was already on the machine (from having sewn the binding on the last quilt) and it worked out so well I used it for the entire quilt.

I love to piece on my Pfaff with IDT (built in walking foot)! My pieces feed so evenly that I only need to pin any tricky intersections.

I have never tried using my walking foot for anything other than quilting. Thanks to your post and the responses, I am going to give it a try and see if I like it.

The built in even feed systems are why I bought my Pfaff and my Janome. I like that they're built in and not a big clunky foot you have to put on and take off.

Never have any problem with fabric bunching up if you pin correctly.I can't stand the noise my walking foot makes(Bernina) so I stick with the 1/4 foot.I feel using the walking foot all the time puts a strain on the machine.

I too have the Pfaff built in walking foot and is always down unless free motion quilting.

Hurrah for the Pfaff IDT. It is the best feature on my machine and would buy Pfaff again for that one reason---always engaged and i can use any foot I want.

I'd be worried about wearing out my Bernina walking foot. I bet it wouldn't be cheap to replace either. I don't mind using a few pins and have no problems with my piecing.

Or you are using a foot that doesn't have a cutout. The shirring foot doesn't have one. Neither do the pintuck and piping feet.

Otherwise, except for embroidery, mine is always down.

I use my walking foot too on my Bernina 440 but I did find out one thing - once you start a quilt with the walking foot, don't switch to another foot!

I totally agree about the Pfaff IDT, I have it engaged all the time. I used it all the time when I did regular sewing.