Silesian ruler foot
 

Does anyone on here use a Silesian ruler foot? I recently bought this foot with a couple of their rulers and discovered that the foot is slightly wider than 1/2". I now hear that it is known within the 'ruler community'.

The problem is that this puts the needle just a little more than the usual 1/4" away from the ruler. The guide marks on the ruler are all a perfect 1/4" apart so if I use them as a reference, my stitching is slightly more than 1/4" away from the edge of the ruler.

#for example, if I intended to sew parallel lines, 1" apart to fill a 6" block, the measurement after the final line of stitches to the edge of the block would be less than the others, looking very odd.

I do intend to contact the company, but wonder if anyone else has come across this. Is there a simple way for compensating for this or will I always have to remember to shift the reference lines on the ruler?

That doesn't sound like a good thing. I'd be tempted to return it.

If you want to do straight lines, you could nudge your needle over so that it would give you 1/4" from one side, but then if you use the other side, you would have to nudge it the other way. Capiche?

How much is just a little more than 1/4"? I ask because if as little as 1/16" it wouldn't be noticed in most cases. But in a case where it would be noticed (like how you plan to quilt evenly spaced lines in a fairly small area), I would mark the lines you want to quilt and make sure you quilt on the marked lines rather than using the ruler marks (or put a small registration dot where you want each line to start and stop and line up your ruler accordingly)or I would compensate by not lining up my ruler mark with the previous quilted line but nudge it over a bit to account for the foot being larger than 1/2". If you don't want to mark, use painters tape in a 1" width and stitch right along the edge of the tape.

I have Janome Artistic 18 Sitdown, and the ruler foot that Janome has for this machine is 9/16 of an inch, I am learning to live with it. My Janome 8400 has a true 1/4 inch ruler foot. Go figure.

I just googled 'silesian ruler foot' and this site came up. https://www.silesianquilt.com/index....oot-high-shank It states very plainly, that the foot is 9/16th inches in diameter. That would mean that dead center would be 1/32 more than 1/4 inch. I am wondering if it has something to do with imperial\metric conversion.

Doesn't the Janome machine have an adjustment to move your needle one click to the right or left? That would solve your 1/4" problem???

I just looked this up and it says the foot is 9/16 and works perfectly with THEIR rulers. Are you using them or some others? Might be the difference.

Yes, I am using the Silesian straight ruler; but hand held without the frame while I am practicing. It has reference lines etched a perfect 1/4" apart and I have put one exactly on the previoius stitch line to create a series of parallel lines to fill a square. When I put a ruler on to measure it is clear that whilst each line is exactly the same distance apart, it is, I now know, 1/32" too far apart.

P-BurgKay: how do you manage to 'live' with this? Do you remember to nudge your ruler just off the reference line every time as Feline Fanatic suggests? That sounds such a faff, and surely the point of rulers is the accuracy? I'll play a little more tomorrow and then contact the company.

Just an update ... after struggling with the Silesian foot I did contact the company. Long story short, they agreed to refund the cost of the foot and rulers, although I did have to post them back to Poland. I will say that they couldn't have been more helpful.

I would still buy their rulers, as the markings appear to be a perfect 1/4", they have a great selection and they would work with the Westerlee foot that I have now. I'll check them out when I go to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham next year.

no, nudging your needle doesn’t work in this case since it would then be off center in the ruler foot. Since ruler work is a form of Free motion quilting you need to have the needle centered in the foot so that no matter what direction you’re sewing in the needle is the same distance from the ruler.

Rob