Luv2quilt49

Do I need a special "quilting foot"? Don't want to ruin quilt. Afraid layers will shift. Spray basting already coming loose.

Geri B

Depends on what you are going to do...straight line- walking foot.........FM- darning foot or hopping foot.......practice on small sandwich....... Check the tutes here for more info

I would feel safer thread basting or pinning rather than spray basting....JMHO

ckcowl

You should put together some small practice pieces & do a lot of practicing Before attempting to quilt your ( real) quilt. Walking foot for straight line quilting * stitch in ditch, cross hatch, gentle curves*
Hopping foot for free motion. Both take some practice. Walking foot works with your feed dogs, free motion quilting is done with feed dogs down so you can ( freely) control moving the fabric.
There are many utube videos, tutorials to watch, help you see the process.

coffeecozy

My fusible batting didn't stick and I ended up with loads of pins in my quilt that I'm working on to try to keep it together. It will be awful to work on if it's coming apart. My machine has a few different feet for fmq and each one feels different. I would practice before you get to a real quilt too. My first efforts were ugly.

QuiltingHaven

Okay, I use a walkingfoot and stitch in the ditch, shadow the outline of the block or go across the blocks. I also usually do my in 3 sections so that it is manageable on my home sewing machine. I have several machines from a Featherweight to the Singer Anniversary machine plus several in-between and have walking feet that work on all of them. Here are some pictures that might help including the finished quilt.

PaperPrincess

I would also second CKCOWL's advice: don't practice on a real quilt! Make sure you feel comfortable quilting using a scrap sandwich. If your spray basting is coming loose thru just handling, I wouldn't trust it and would also pin.
Use a walking foot for straight lines & gentle curves and you would need a hopping foot, FMQ foot OR darning foot for free motion quilting.

ManiacQuilter2

I always encourage newbie quilters to practice on something like quilts for a dog shelter. The dogs get something comfortable to lie on and you get the practice. The dogs won't tell the quilt police about how well the quilt was quilted.

Prism99

Around the edges? Safety pin the edges to keep the edges in place. If more is coming loose than just the edges, you may want to add safety pins throughout the body of the quilt. Just be careful and remove pins as you quilt. I ruined an expensive walking foot when a safety pin got caught by the foot; didn't notice until it was too late -- the spring in the foot was already pulled out of whack.

For a first-time quilter, the easiest thing to do is to use a walking foot (helps keep the layers from shifting) and quilt wavy lines. This is ***much, much, much*** easier than trying to do straight lines or stitch-in-the ditch and any "mistakes" simply aren't mistakes. With a walking foot you sew with the feed dogs up (normal) and presser foot down (normal). Start at one edge of the quilt and sew across to the other edge, using your hands to gently guide the quilt left and right to make large, soft, wavy lines. Here are some photos of what it looks like when you are done:
http://sewsweetness.com/2011/09/back...and-other.html (wavy or organic quilting)
http://handmadewhimzy.blogspot.com/2...oss-quilt.html

elizajo

I use a walking foot for most of my quilting. Once I figured out how to put it on my machine, I didn't have to worry about tension or stitch length at all. Using the curvy lines that Prism99 recommends above is the easiest for your first quilting, IMHO. For me the most difficult part about quilting on a standard home machine is managing the bulk of your quilt as you stitch. It takes frequent stops to "fluff and stuff" the quilt so that you can move ahead with stitching without creating any drag on the quilt. This is the part that takes some practice, and I find that working on a small piece before hand doesn't prepare you for this part of machine quilting. I got the most help by watching several different youtube videos online.

I haven't ever used fusible batting, but I baste with needle and thread using a herringbone stitch and for good measure, secure with some safety pins, too! I'm not one for lots of gadgets, but I find that the quilting gloves are essential for me. I have a little arthritis in my hands and have trouble holding onto the quilt without them. Good luck!

Jratcliff

There are a couple of fantastic classes on Craftsy by Ann Pederson about quilting on a DSM. She shows how to work on large quilts, how to set them up, STITD, doing borders, etc and also has you start on practice sandwiches. Really fantastic classes that I still go back to on occasion and always hear/see something that I missed before. And the classes are all on sale right now.