questions about ruler work
 

A while back, I bought a slant shank ruler foot from Westalee. I never tried to use it because my vintage Singer 401 will not drop feed dogs. I've fallen in love with my vintage Singer 301 and decided to try ruler work on it, as it will drop it's feed dogs. (I'm waiting for a walking foot that will fit the 301.) I have the foot and one template at this point.

I've watched a few videos today and made a practice piece. I realized many of my regular quilting rulers are the same thickness as the Westalee ruler. Is there any reason not to try using them for straight line quilting?

bkay

If your ruler won't slide under the presser foot, it would probably be alright. Some machines have a hop built into the presser foot, and it wouldn't work on those machines. It should be fine on a vintage Singer.

I really enjoy quilting with my Westalee rulers!

Thanks Annette. I don't think that I will continue to work on this skill. It didn't go well and I'm not sure where to go from here. There are so many possibilities for operator or machine error, where do you start?

bkay

The thickness of the ruler is key. For high shanked machine, the thickness of the ruler is the same as that the long armers use in their ruler work, so yes long arm quilting rulers will work. However, on short shanked machine, there is not enough clearance to use these thicker rulers so for those those machines, you need the rulers designed to be used with the short shanked machines. Just don't use regular cutting rulers as they are not thick enough to prevent sliding under the foot and causing needles to break and possibly timing to go out. OH, and yep, ruler work does take practice but I find it easier to do then regular free motion at least you have an edge to follow. Sometimes it helps to slow down your machine. I really haven't done much of it and now I purchased the insert that lets me use the BSR(stitch regulator) on my Bernina while doing ruler work.

Thanks, sewingpup, I just used the Westalee ruler. My error was either operator or machine, not the ruler or the foot. They worked just fine. My machine would not consistently pick up the bobbin thread. I have no idea where to go from there.

I removed everything related to the ruler work, set the feed dogs back up, and the machine worked just fine. I went slow, I went fast and every speed in between. It would not pick up the bobbin thread more than about 4 stitches.

bkay

bkay- because the Westalee foot is a floating foot, it has to be adjusted to the correct height over the fabric in order to get good and consistent stitch formation. Not picking up bobbin thread is most likely due to having the foot too high off the fabric. Westalee's spacer for height of the foot is just a starting point, and in my experience it almost always leaves the foot just a little too high to get consistent stitch formation. Try lowering the foot just a bit so that it is skimming, but not quite touching the fabric, and see if that helps. When the foot is adjusted properly you should still be able to easily move your fabric under it.

Rob

Thanks Rob. I'll play some more.
bk

and make sure that you do not press too hard on the ruler foot with the ruler as you go. Too much pressure could cause the needle/foot to move a bit out of place and not catch the threads properly to make the stitch.