WHAT! Walking foot for zig zag quilting?
 

Had a lesson with sewing machine tech and she said she uses her walking foot when she wants to sew a decorative stitch on her quilts. I almost fell off my chair! Have you heard of this? I thought walking foot was for straight stitches only.

My walking foot came with two different feet attachments: one with a small hole for straight stitch and one that has a wider hole that can be used for zigzag and decorative stitches. With a thicker sandwich I don't get a perfectly even zigzag but the walking foot makes it come out better than a regular one. It isn't something I explored a lot.

Seems my older model machines have had a walking foot with wide opening for zig zag. The newer machines I have only has the straight stitch walking foot.

I have a Janome and use the walking foot when I do serpentine stitching for "quilting."

It may be available, and just not part of the initial purchase package.
Most new machines have both available. And sometimes more than two options.

My Viking Epic1 came with the walking foot with options to buy more feet for decorative stitching. I bought those I thought I could use as some you could use for the same thing so why buy them all? So far I haven't done anything with them as I most times stitch my binding using my little Brother machine sitting on the cutting table. It's lighter weight so reason for using that machine. I'll have to check the walking foot that came with it to see what size hole it has as I've got 3 quilts needing their binding to be stitched on.

I can see where it would be helpful if your machine doesn't handle thicker fabrics well. I use my 30 year old Bernina for that because I does handle thick fabrics without a problem. I have a walking foot for it that I rarely have to use.

I've done this before but it was a few years back and had forgotten about it. Been sewing on my Janome 1600P straight stitch machine and willl have to change back to the 6500MC to do it again. Thanks for the reminder!

I never use a walking foot. I've never had an issue with moving my fabric layers evenly through the machine during quilting or any other thickness (binding etc.), so never saw the need to use one.

I do change my presser foot for doing different seam allowances from 1/16th up to 1/2". I prefer to use the different presser feet instead of using a side bar or whatnot to keep my seams the width I need at the time.