My machine (Janome 4800) has a selection of decorative stitches that I've very rarely used, but this afternoon I began to wonder if I could use them for quilting, as I'm quilting a wall hanging, a log cabin Christmas tree (very appropriate to be working on that at the summer solstice of course...!) and am totally stuck as to how to quilt the background. So, with no idea of how I'm supposed to go about this, I've been experimenting. I've tried 3 patterns, a snowflake and 2 stars, the idea being to do short vertical lines of stitches randomly on the quilt. They all worked well on my practice piece, but on the actual quilt there were a lot of skipped stitches and sometimes only half the pattern. I was trying to keep off the seams, but I'm guessing that the log cabin blocks may have been the problem, as the practice piece, with no seams, was OK. I started with the walking foot, but found that I got better results with an ordinary one. The simplest of the stars is now coming out OK.
I'd be interested to hear any advice or thoughts from the experts on here on using decorative stitches for quilting.

Hi Anne,

Are you leaving the feed dogs up or down? The decorative stitches won't pick up properly with them down. You may also need to adjust the presser foot pressure slightly if you can...since the seams are slightly thicker, a little lighter pressure on the foot could make that difference.

I freq use my decrotive stitches for quilting.. If the stitich is a detailed one I make it larger than normal.. and I've had no problems sewing over seams.....

Feed dogs are up. I can't alter the pressure foot pressure on my machine (as far as I know..).

I can't change the size of the decorative stitches on this machine - but I don't want them to stand out too much on this quilt, so that's OK. I'm just after a bit of extra interest in the background quilting without taking the attention away from the centre of the wall hanging.

I would check your manual to be sure you can't change the foot pressure. I think most machines you can. I have used decorative stitches and liked them. I agree that making them larger often looks nice.

you just have to experiement. Decorative stitches are created for one or two layers of fabric. Walking foot just to go forward and limited in other directions.
So just have to experiment to see if they will work on the piece you are making.....One method does not fit all machines

One thing to keep in mind is that many of the decorative stitches make a lot of punctures in the fabric very close together. Over time, these perforations will act like they do on the edge of postage stamps: making it easy to tear. I used a lot of them on a quilt one time, and then I happened to hold it up with a light behind it and was surprised at how much light came through around those stitches.

They're fine for a wall hanging that won't get much handling or washing, but I'd have second thoughts about using them in a bed or lap quilt.

Good point - thankyou. I'd realised this when I took out some stitches, and was perilously near to making a hole in the backing.

I enlarge stitches when quilting. Have adjusted the tension on machine? What thread are you using?