Help needed- T-shirt quilt/Walking foot quilting issue
 

Hello. I am currently quilting a t-shirt quilt I made for my niece for her HS graduation gift. I am using my walking foot and have not had trouble with the cotton t-shirts or the checkerboard sashing. However, I also have several jerseys from sports she played over the years that are a different material and when the walking foot goes over these it creates a row of pills on either side of the stitch line. I tried using a regular foot, but it bunched up the fabric in one spot. I really need suggestions. Please.

Do you need to change to a ball point needle?

I think what you are saying is that the feet in the walking foot are grabbing the jersey & pilling the fabric?
I would try putting a piece of giftwrap tissue paper over the fabric & try quilting thru that. You should still be able to see the design on the shirt & then just tear it off when you are done.
You can also try lessening your presser foot pressure (check your manual).
Finally, use scraps from the offending shirts to perfect the technique.

I don't have a solution but when I take shirts for a T shirt quilt I only take cotton or cotton blend T shirts. No nylon jerseys at all.

Did you stabilize the cotton shirts? How did you do the same on the jersey shirts? I've done several commissioned tee shirt quilts and with the last one, the lady had some jersey's, I told her that I wouldn't be able to use those.

Or is it the large expanse of plasticky letters on the jerseys?

The suggestion of using tissue paper brings to mind a suggestion I saw recently. Most of us who are quilters have made garments in the past. Remember all those outdated, too small patterns in the back of the closet? Use those patterns for foundation piecing much like the use for old phone book pages. Saving another tree! The situation with this posting would be another use for the old patterns. Most of those pieces also were a bit slick that might be just the thing to try.

agree w/ paper princess; use the tissue paper; I've had good luck using it especially on those large plastic-like letters/numbers

One other thought... Maybe put painter's tape on either side of the seam, and sew between them?

This is good advice. I use waxed paper just wide enough for my foot to move over.. maybe an inch or so wide, so it doesn't grab that fabric. I also do this for shirts that have that rubbery stuff in the design that the foot wants to stick to.