I recently tried to do my quilting ( putting all the layers together) with a decorative stitch. I was really disappointed because the stitches varied in length and gathered the fabric a bit. I would like to use the stiches that I have on my machine but am reluctant to try it again. What can I do to make this work?

Did you use your walkingfoot? Did you pull or yank on your fabric?

Did you loosen your tension. Make a practice piece using the same number of layers and keep adjusting til you get your tension right.

If you are using your walking foot or IDT (pffaf) to quilt with your stitches can be distorted . The walking foot is made to go forward, so any decorative stitches that require going backward or side ways don't work.

I have a pfaff and my dealer told me not to do any decorative stitches with the idt unless the display tells me it's ok.

I use the decorative stitches from my Pfaff machine in most of my quilts. Sometime they are not prefect, but I sure don't let that stop me. Consider it freedom of movement.
Don't give up.

you need to loosen your presser foot tension

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox8qRhWF3CI

I have a Viking and use decorative stitches with my walking foot all the time, however, I do stick to the less decorative ones that tend to just move the fabric forward, rather than a lot of forward & reverse (if that makes any sense). Adjust your tension on a practice sandwich as suggested.

I'm glad you posted this. I am getting ready to use my Pfaff to quilt with a decorative stitch and wouldn't have thought to disengage my IDT. Great advice.

Will be sure to do a test piece also, like suggested.

This is so helpful. Keep the recommendations coming!

I have the best luck with the simpler stitch designs, widening and lengthening them too. Short, detailed, seem to distort within the 3 layers... and the thicker the batting the more they can distort.

Try stitching out samples, changing the width/length as you go. Write next to them the length/width/other machine settings to use as a future reference :D:D:D

Do you engage the idt when you do your decorative stitches?

My dealer told me not to use the idt when going backward or side ways. If I want to use a decorative stitch when the display tells me not to use the idt, I disengage it. I find the info button quite handy because it will tell me when I choose a stitch whether I can use the idt or not.

Freedom of movement is a cool concept but I would hate to see any one ruin their walking foot.

I have had good results when I use my walking foot.

I use the decorative stitches on my Bernina 1260 all the time to make my Linus quilts. I also make sure I always use the walking foot.

Have you heard about the "Cotton Theory", it's a kind of quilt as you go and she uses a lot of the decorative stitches???

This post addressed the same thing I have been trying to do. I have had luck doing the decorative stitches with the IDT on. I thought if you had layers that you needed it to feed the fabric through. I just discovered that my PFAFF has some decorative stitches that are great for quilting. A couple of them look like stippling even.