Originally Posted by twinstitches

Hello Everybody!

I am very new to free motion quilting and very interested. It looks beautiful and like a very fun art I'd like to try. I've research, watched, read, etc, etc but I am stuck. I finally got my embroidery foot but I can't seem to make things work. I have a Singer Ingenuity 7436 and I got my darning foot on Ebay. I found out from Singer they don't make a darning foot for my machine so I had to get a generic one. Even though the one I got said it was for my machine I think it's wrong. Here is what is happening...

I drop my feed dogs, set my stitch length to zero, start the first stitch, pull up my bobbin thread and hold it, then I try to make a few stitches and nothing takes. The machine acts like there is no fabric there, no stitches are formed. My machine does a great job of punching holes through my fabric sandwich but not a single stitch catches the bobbin thread. I have tried different threads, changed my tension, and used different needles. I am working with a 100% cotton fabric sandwich (cotton-batting-cotton), not on any projects. I though I should practice first before I try to make something.

I have done a bit more research today and I think I know the problem but I wanted to ask you ladies first. My embroidery/darning foot sits about 1/4" above my fabric and does not have a spring that goes up and down. Could this be my problem??? It seams the foot stays 1/4" above the fabric the whole time I am trying to sew. This in turn makes my fabric come up a little while I am trying to sew. Where does your darning foot sit while you are sewing/stippling???

Thank You!
Elayne