Straight lines aren't straight
 

I had a few prints of quarter yards, just enough to make a small baby quilt for Project Linus. The actual piecing went fine, quilting not so much. My Janome on the Grace frame was still skipping stitches despite having the needle changed and trying different threads. No problem, I can still straight-line quilt it on my designated machine... or so I thought. I used a walking foot with the bar attachment ... and still none of my lines came out straight. I'm wanting to rip out ALL of the stitches and try something different (meander or stipple). Anyone else have this problem with vertical or horizontal straight-line quilting or is it just me?

I don't have that specific problem, but I do find it harder to straight line with walking foot stitch than for just FMQ. I always seem to have some little problem with using the walking foot.

If your machine is domestic on a frame sometimes they don’t like to sew long distances in a direction that isn’t straight up or down.

Straight lines and ditch stitching are beyond me. I gave up. You could do intentionally wavy lines. For me a meander is finally easy and my “go to”.

If this is for Project Linus, I wouldn’t worry about it not being too straight. Just consider it a practice piece. Children wouldn’t know if it is straight or crooked. They will be thrilled to have a quilt of their own

I agree with this. It likely won't even be noticeable after washing anyway.
Regarding your skipped stitches - what size needle are you using? I found when I was quilting on my DSM I had to use a 16 or 18 to stop skipping.

Unless they are a "sheldon cooper" LOL

LOL. Sheldon would notice!

If your first line is not straight, then the bar attachment is going to follow that un-straight line and everything will be off. I would (in future quilts) mark a occasional straightline with cahlk or painters tape so that you have a good reference for "straight", or you can try to follow specific lines in you patchwaork, such as always corssing a specific point on the flying geese as yougo down the quilt orsomething. The walking foot will stitch straight, but the manipulation of the quilt will often throw it off, especially with extra long lines

I also have found it helpful/useful to mark lines for reference on the item.

Get a straight edge construction ruler to start marking lines from the middle out.
I have the six foot and four foot. Metal and 2" wide. Very inexpensive at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Swanson-Too...-Ruler/1006479

Check out You Tube and Jacquie Gering videos. Very helpful for straight line quilting.

Linda, I don't have an answer but do share your frustration. No matter which machine I'm using I can't get straight lines with a walking foot.

I did not get along well with my walking foot (we have never reconciled)! I loosened the presser foot - how firmly it holds the fabric as it feeds through and dropped my feed dog a bit- not 100% completely down. And it stitched beautifully for me front and back. I was using an old Singer 15-91 so not same machine as yours. If on domestic machine I pre-marked the lines because I would get lost as the quilt get wadded up and rolled and re-rolled just stuffing it through the throat! And even on the longarm I have pre-marked some
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVIjP5tn_5U

The skipped stitches is maddening for sure!! When you're not under the gun for time I'd experiment with adjusting the machine on the frame and try different ideas. Maybe you have better success going one direction vs the other.

Hello Onebyone....I did buy a 1 1/2" metal carpenters ruler from Harbor Freight and managed to do a cross hatch pattern on my latest project. I also remembered that a very wonderful woman gave me a 3/4" square block yard stich years ago and I'll be using that to mark the quilts with Crayola Washable Markers from now on. Thank you for opening my eyes to a very simple soultion!

I also mark about every 8"-12", being sure I am also staying parallel to any piecing seams at the same time. It's easy to start getting slanted as you go along.

Watson