Sewing Machine Feet?!?
 

Hi Everyone,

I am brand new to quilting...decided to make a tshirt quilt for my daughter instead of tossing out all her old tshirts that don't fit anymore. Brilliant, right?? Ha!
So, I started cutting and sewing and then realized...hmmmm...maybe I should try some little practice projects. I have two placemat sized quilting sandwiches ready to go.

The problem? My machine came with a quilting foot and a walking foot. And some other feet I know nothing about. Did I mention I never sewed before?? Yes, I am very brave! lol

So, what is the difference between the quilting foot and the walking foot? Also, I haven't looked, but then there's the free form foot??? So many feet, so little socks.

Oh, yeah, and what about the fabric feeder...do you drop or not? I've read yes, yes, drop it...no, no, don't drop it.

All I know, is that yesterday I tried to quilt a strip of fabric (just for practice and checking my tension)...and IT DID NOT WORK OUT!!!
I have the quilting foot on it, I dropped the feeder thingie and my fabric would not budge! I couldn't get it to move AT ALL! Sooooo.....I'm thinking bring the feeder back up and maybe try the walking foot today?

Don't get me started on tension...I still have to Google that bad boy.

Did you stabilize the shirts with fusible interfacing then sew all the squares together? After sewing squares together then sandwich the top (shirts) backing and batting. The proceed to stitch in the ditch down and across the seams with your walking foot. After the squares are all stabilized do the quilting you desire in each block with your free form foot. This s a very ambitious project. You need to google t shirt quilts and get more precise directions.

I did stabilize the tshirts first. :) I actually didn't know you had to do that until I did some research and actually stumbled upon it quite accidentally...so glad I did!
Walking foot, huh? Ok, I am going to figure out how to get that big fella on my machine today. Thanks!

a walking foot or can be called an even feed foot is to move all the layers of a quilt sandwich through together. With out it, you will get puckers. You would not use this foot if you are piecing two pieces of fabric.

I am glad you learned to stabilize the t-shirts. Do this BEORE you cut to size. This allows the knit fabric to act like woven fabric and not stretch.

you need the feed dogs up to make your fabric move normally to sew. unless you are doing Free Motion quilting which you need to be using a darning foot (with a spring on the shaft). I think the walking foot would do well on your t-shirt blocks. I can't think why it's not moving at all though. do you have your stitch length set at zero?? you would not do that for regular sewing.

There is a lot of videos on you tube.here is just one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGiQGOWsm0Y
here are some on free motion quilting
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc....1.br4F0uAxcSg

It is possible that I set my stitch length to low. Probable. lol I was fiddling and I probably forgot to re-adjust. I am spending a lot of time on line this morning before I head back to the machine.

Thanks for the help!

Actually you do not "have to" stabilize the t-shirts first.
You've done it already, so continue on.
Before you do another, you might want to check out Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts and learn how to do a quilt without a stabilizer.

Ok, so I made it over to my machine...put the walking foot on...got the stitch length and tension just right (i think)...but the fabric is bunching up more than I expected with the walking foot. I even found the foot pressure adjuster knob that I didn't even know existed...props to the hubs for that one, he was being nosey and said "What's this?" Uhhhh, let me get the manual. lol

So I eased up on the foot's pressure, and it is bunching less, but still bunching nonetheless. Is it my hands?? Am I not doing enough "handling of the fabric? And should I only be handling the top layer?
Just for your reference I used the spray adhesive, not pins.

You have to slide the material under the needle if the feed dogs are down. It will not "move" unless "you" move the material.

I was experimenting and wasn't thrilled with what the walking foot was doing for me, so I put the all purpose foot back on...and oh wow!! Soooooo easy!!! No problems!! I'm sure freestyling it will be another ordeal in itself, but for now, I am thrilled!! :)

Thanks for all the help everyone!

I hope this works....

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5ec0e306.jpg


Woah, kinda big....but, yeah...I stitched in the ditch using black thread and then I wanted to see my stitches more, so I switched out to an off white thread and started making some diagonal stripes. :) Fun!

I may turn this into some kind of apron skirt thing if I don't totally mess it up.

I have sewn since I was 5 yrs old and when I bought my new sewing/embroidery machine 6 years ago I didn't sew a stitch for 6 months without the manual right beside me. There are so many things to remember at first on the new machines even if you think you are VERY familiar with them. Also making samples using the same fabrics you are going to quilt is a very good idea no matter how long you have been quilting.

I totally agree withpollyjvan9, I have been sewing for over 50 years, every machine comes with an instruction book, it is worth your time to read it and follow the instructions.I recently purchased a singer xl500 and wwould have been lost if not for the instructions that came with it, JMHO

Are you piecing the quilt or trying to quilt it it wasn't clear in your question

Quilt it. All the piecing was already done and when I went to actually quilt (for the first time ever) it wasn't working. But, I'm good now. :)