Pennyhal

When quilting on your sewing machine, what stitch length do you use? I done hand quilting for years, and am starting to use my machine more. In hand quilting, I just use the stitch length that comes naturally for me in the rhythm of quilting. At this point, I'm just quilting in straight lines. I really don't know what the numbers on the machine translate to inches. For regular sewing, I just use 2. That seems to tight to me.

quiltsRfun

I use a 2.5 or 3 for straight line stitching with a walking foot.

Dolphyngyrl

You set the length by consistency of movement too slow will be longer stitches too fast will be small stitches. I usually don't touch my tension or stitch length on my dsm but try to maintain an even hand and machine speed.

Dolphyngyrl

Sorry thought you meant Fmq for walking foot I use a 3

EasyPeezy

I believe mine is about 10 stitches per inch for quilting.
For piecing I use 12-15 stitches per inch.

Prism99

It depends somewhat on the thickness of the batting. My machine defaults to 2.5 and that is what I use for piecing. For quilting with a walking foot, I start with 3 and go higher if the stitches look too small. Mostly it is about what looks good to you. You can make up a small test sandwich to try out different stitch lengths if you want.

Jingle

I don't do a lot of straight line quilting (mostly FMQ). When I do I use 3 stitch length.

Teen

I use 2.5 to 3 if quilting is not dense. If it is a dense pattern, then I use 3.5

quilting cat

The numbers many of you are quoting are brand dependent! EasyPeezy's answer makes more sense -- and is more measurable, sight unseen. I use a slightly longer stitch when machine quilting straight lines, more like 8 to 10 stitches per inch, while I piece at 12 to 15 stitches per inch.

Prism99

Modern domestic sewing machines are standardized, as far s I know, with stitch length expressed in mm. So, for example, 3 means an individual stitch length of 3mm. Pulling out my trusty little metal slide, I can see that 1 inch equals about 25mm, so a stitch length of 3 is equal to about 8 stitches per inch. I don't think this varies with brand, but maybe there are some exceptions out there.

I would have to pull out one of my vintage machines to check, but those machines may have stitch length expressed in number of stitches per inch (at least, in the U.S.). Seems to me I remember the settings being more like 8, 10, 12. This would be more in line with how hand stitches used to be counted.