Sid
 

If I want to stitch in the ditch to quilt am I better off using the stitch in the ditch foot that came with my Brother machine or the walking foot I bought?

Common sense tells me the SID foot would be best as it is designed for the job but then most videos online show the walking foot...

Make a sample and try them both.

I’ve used the walking foot with success. TIP - As you SID, position your hands on both sides of the walking foot. Gently pull the fabric out away from the foot and afterwards the SID stitching line will not be seen.

Is this the Dual feed WF (the big one)? There are optional snap on feet for these WF. One is a SITD foot. There is also a new one that has the 1/4 inch seam guide.

I use the SITD with the WF. It works great!

Hi Rhonda, it is the dual feed walking foot I have but there are no options to change the feet on it. The SID foot I have is a normal snap on foot for my machine.

Thanks for the tip about pulling apart seam side - I did see this in one of the videos.

Also someone said that you cannot SID if you pressed open your seams rather than to the side - are they right?

don't use a normal SID foot for quilting.
unless you pin, pin, pin and pin some more you will end up with bunches and tucks.
not worth it.
even a dual feed SID foot presents challenges.
not much visibility so it takes a lot of practices to keep the stitch line straight.

use an open-toe walking foot that gives you plenty of visibility.
that way you can see where the needle is going to land.
much easier to keep the line straight.

I do STID free motion style and have good success. It eliminates pressure from any type of foot that can cause little tucks, especially at intersecting elements. Yes, it did take some practice-just like so many other techniques.

Yes, they are correct. If the seam is pressed open there's no fabric for it to grab when you sew on the seam. If your SID is accurate you'll just be catching the threads of the original seam, not the fabric. If this doesn't make sense, try holding a seam that's pressed open to the light and gently pulling it apart (maybe on a test seam, not on your quilt) and you can see light coming through.

Too bad they don't make a walking foot that has that SID guide on it. That would be great! I like the guide for accuracy but it seems to push the fabric ahead of it when quilting. I have 2 of these as I wondered if there was something wrong with the first one I bought. It's like the guide is too tight against the fabric and "digs in". Perhaps the suggestion of pulling the fabric to the sides as stitching would help prevent that. Will have to try it.

only use my walking foot for SID...moves the fabric top/back and no tucks if pinned properly.

I have the dual feed stitch in the ditch foot for my Janome 6600, but have had little luck using to actually quilt. I prefer ditching with my FMQ foot, or using a ruler foot and a straight edged ruler.

I bought a ditch foot for my machine and was disappointed with the performance. (Had bunching.) I was only happy with the open toe walking foot, and if I SITD, I use the advice of many to stitch slightly to one side of the ditch, not right on the seam.

This is an off-the-grid idea, but have you tried removing the foot, holding the fabric tightly, and quilting it that way?

Try adjusting the pressure on your foot. Perhaps if you loosen it a little it will not “dig in and push” the fabric???

Thaks Mitty, that makes perfect sense. I am trying to decide how to quilt my quite large complex paper pieced Christmas image. Nearly all the seams are pressed open because that is the only way I can get the hundreds of tiny pieces to lie correctly and line up.

Now that SID is ruled out I think it will have to be be a very simple and almost invisible all over FMQ as straight lines wouldn’t look right.

I hate the quilting part of projects haha!

I use a walking foot and don't have any problems staying in the ditch.

My go to is the walking foot. The stitch in the ditch foot has not worked for me. I've been known to use the seam ripper after using that particular foot.

Thanks for the info!

What machine do you have? Check with your dealer or on-line as there may be new accessories.

For the Brother/BL machines with the Digital Dual Feed WF there are extra feet available. This is a large WF that plugs into the back of the machines.

The regular one comes with the WF, plus there is a SITD foot, the Open Toe foot and a new one that has the 1/4 inch guide on it. I would like that one for attaching quilt bindings.

Hope that helps!

I use a walking foot for a lot of my quilting, including SID. A gal named Jacquie Gering has some great tutorials on Craftsy, as well as others. Make a practice sandwich quilt and try both out and see what works best for you.