Straight Line Quilting
 

I made a top from Elizabeth Hartman's Dogs in Sweaters pattern. I started quilting it on my Juki 2200 with the walking foot on using straight vertical lines randomly spaced. I"m alternating stitching the rows top to bottom and then bottom to top. I'm having trouble with the quilting distorting the horizontal seams. It seems to be pushing them a bit so they look wavy. What is causing this? Could it be that the pressure on my presser foot is too heavy?

do try loosening the presser foot tension. Are you using a walking foot? That might help instead.

Yes, I am using a walking foot. I"ll try lightening up the pressure on the presser foot and see it that helps. Thanks.

Thanks, Tartan. I'll try that.

which type of batting are you using?
if it's polyester, it's nearly impossible to keep the top smooth unless you baste the tar out of it first.

for me, anyway.

I also find it helps me, when I’m quilting the layers together, to sew slowly. It seems to alleviate some of the drag.

I tend to use my walking foot for that. helps a lot. oops, just saw that. I did one recently i'd pinned. hate pinning. when i spray baste, all is better.

I would avoid those seams and quilt at least 1/4" away from every one of them. It's their thickness that is causing the problem.

I"m using Warm and Natural batting, Patrice. No polyester.

The problem is crossing those seams. I don't know how to avoid crossing the horizontal seams when quilting vertical lines and random widths. The same thing would happen if I quilting horizontally, it would just be the vertical seams.