Walking foot question
 

Hello fellow quilters!

Can you use a walking foot to quilt curves? I know it's good for straight line quilting, but I'd love to do more designs on my quilts, and I don't have a long arm quilting machine, just a regular sewing machine.

Thanks!

I've used a walking foot to do gentle curves to suggest ocean waves.

Was it hard to do?

Joy--it's not hard though takes some patience. I've done curves as Indycat32 suggested, also tighter ones. The smaller the piece, the easier it is, as you have to turn the whole quilt (360 degrees to make a circle, for example), stopping every little bit to lift presser foot and shift quilt. On a runner with Broken Dishes blocks, I quilted overlapping circles drawn on waxed paper of salad plates, saucers and cups--so, pretty small, but came out OK.

Leah day does some free tutorials on her website with a walking foot and curves. Pretty interesting.

There are several Craftsy classes on quilting with a walking foot. Mary Mashuta also has a couple books on this topic, Check Amazon or your local library.

Thanks so much - Does anyone have the website of Leah Day handy and could share?

LeahDay.com

Welcome to this board from Missouri.

Does your machine have an adjustment for presser foot pressure? If you reduce the foot pressure you will have an easier time of making your gentle curves.

My favorite walking foot teacher is Jacquie Gering. I found her on Craftsy on one of those free marathon days they do occasionally. She's also on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNgMHqSXjN8

bkay

As part of my Home Machine Quilting Club, I have the ladies quilt the outline of two 4" hearts that are overlapped, with their walking foot, just so they understand how much of a curve they can do with it. It's a great way to get a nice outline with perfect stitch length.

Yes you can. I have even made a complete circular pattern on a quilt using a walking foot. Jacquie Gering has some good videos on youtube & Craftsy. I took a class from a local teacher using Jacquie's methods. Here's the circle quilt I did with a walking foot.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/member...49-588737.html

I always use a practice sandwich pad to check out the pattern I want to do.

I've done waves and gentle curves before, but I am definitely going to try this on one of my next quilts:

https://leahday.com/blogs/machinequi...t-super-spiral

A related but different question.....can you use a walking foot using decorative stitches on your machine?

You can do more. Like you that is what I wanted to know. I borrowed from my guild library a book entitled...Walk, Master Machine Quilting with Your Walking Foot by Jacquie Gering. The book is written as though she is talking especially to you, very informative and easy to understand. Lots of diagrams. This one book I am going to buy for myself.

Awesome! Thanks for the tip sewbizgirl

Thank you all!! I'm going to practice my "hearts" and curves with my walking foot prior to making my quilt. I've looked at some quilts on here and they are amazing. My goals. ;)

Some decorative stitches might work, but I would be careful about it.

My walking foot comes with two different foot attachments. One has a very small hole for the needle and most of the decorator stitches have the needle moving left and right, and it would hit the foot. The other foot is more open and it might work, but I would still be nervous about it and hand crank the machine through the first iteration.

Take a look at TallgrassprairieStudio.blogspot.com to see some of the work of Jacque Guering. She also has several books on using a walking foot on a domestic sewing machine. I think there are classes on Craftsy.

Check your machine settings. My machine locks out any stitches that won't work. Double check the width/length to make sure the needle won't hit the foot.

Yes, you can use all the stitches on your machine for quilting with a walking foot. Jacquie Gering also uses this in her Craftsy classes and u-tube videos.

I've not done a whole quilt, but have played with decorative stitches on practice pieces. I used my Vintage Singer 401a with a walking foot. I used the cams that came with it. It worked, but I didn't have enough control of the size of the stitches to produce the appearance I wanted. It did work, though.

Jacquie Gering does a youtube video on using decorative stitches with your walking foot on a modern machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf9LgT9IrBE

bkay

Jackie, that circle quilt is absolutely beautiful!! Was this a spiral? or just circles?