Straight line Machine quilting
 

Oh Boy... I am a new quilter, as in I am attempting to finish my first one. I am having such a hard time with quilting my quilt sandwich together though. I have a walking foot and it works fabulously on a scrap when I test it. When I try and quilt my quilt (about 36"x 42" off the top of my head) it has such a hard time pulling it through. When I try and help it, my stitches come out all wonky: smaller or bigger than I want! Is this me, the machine or my walking foot? How in the world can I get even stitches? BTW I have an older Kenmore 158.1941. Thanks for any input!

Kate,

Make sure the entire quilt is supported, front, back and left side. If there is any drag on it, that could affect your stitches.

Welcome Kate from outside of St. Louis, MO. You shouldn't have to help move the quilt under the presser foot. Maybe you need longer stitch length.

Did you keep your feed dogs up? If you lowered them, then your machine won't pull your fabric through. When using your walking foot, you need your feed dogs up so they grab the fabric and pull it tnru, like usual.

Welcome Kate to the quilting board. I am in Arizona.

I also lengthen my stitches to 3.0 which would probably be about 9 or 10 on an older machine.

Are you using a high loft batting, maybe the Kenmore doesn't have the power to pull it through. Maybe a little more pressure on the foot? Longer stitches should help and reducing any drag is all that comes to mind. I set up two ironing boards beside my table the machine is on. One for the side and one for the front. Helps to support the weight of the quilt. Don't get discouraged, these are all learning curves and at one time or another we've all had some problems.

Welcome Kate! You should not be struggling that much with your walking foot on this Kenmore machine. Set your stitch length on the dial to #6, that's the longest stitch and then release some of pressure off of the presser foot and see if that works better for you. Also make sure the feed dogs are in the up position. Your Kenmore is a very good machine. Hope this helps.

You have to have the foot down too. Don't forget that. You'll get it going. Don't worry.

Thanks everyone! I have the feed dog control up but the foot down. The stitch is at 6 (longest stitch on ye ol' machine). I will check the batting... I just grabbed some that was on sale. If that is the problem, boy I will never do that again. I did have the quilt supported in back but it was weighing heavy on the side and from my lap. I did find when I held it up some and fed it, it worked great. Does anyone else do this? It's like I need four arms for this "hobby" haha.