I know from previous posts that some of you are quilting beautiful quilts on the cheaper machines such as the Brother XL2600. I'm hoping you can give me some tips to improve the look of what I'm doing.

When quilting straight boring lines with a walking foot, my machine periodically seems unable to move the quilt through. I have to kind of shove it along and end up getting teeny tiny stitches.

I have the stitch length set as long as possible. When I practice on a smaller item it works great, but when I do a larger quilt I have this problem.

Is my machine just to puny for the job? I don't have an extension table, but have created one from shipping boxes and still have the problem. Would a "real" extension table make that much of a difference?

Are you using a walking foot? It's a necessity for working with larger quilts IMHO. Oops I reread it and you are. How about a new needle and making sure the quilt doesn't drag..

Make sure there is no "pull" of the weight of the remainder of the quilt Lisa. You need to have the full weight of the quilt supported. I pleat mine up all around the bit I'm working on. If you're doing straight lines, slow down a bit, the walking foot doesnt like going too fast!
Before I had a bigger sewing table I used to put the ironing board at the side of me and 2 chairs in front of the machine table to support it all.

I second the 'check to make sure it is not dragging'.
The first one I did was all bunched in my lap and the machine could not 'pull' it! Once I 'fluffed' it up and brought the next area closer to the machine all was a lot better! Now THAT was clear as mud :-P :-P :-P If you can decipher it I hope it helps :wink: :wink:
Katrine explained it VERY well!! We posted at the same time!!

All quilters know what the others mean Susan! The first big one I did, I had read you should fold it up in your lap - and had the very same problem. The same happens when you roll up & use those "bicycle clips" - what a waste of money they were!





:lol: