J Miller

I'm in the process of quilting a 33"x33" pet pad. Top is cotton squares, batting is maybe a 1/4" to 5/16" then the back is fleece. We were going to donate or sell it at a quarter auction next weekend.

We were using my 66-16 cabinet machine with our one walking foot that will work on straight stitch machines and moving right along when it just quit feeding. The machine was not the problem, one of the screws on the WF came unscrewed and then it quit feeding. When I say "quit feeding" that's exactly what happened. With the WF out of action the machine just would not feed the quilt with it in place.
I'll work on it today.

So I switched to a vintage short toed Singer quilting foot and had more problems.

Here is my questions:

A: When quilting with a vintage machine such as the Singer 66, do you normally use a heavy, medium or light presser foot tension? And do you change the tension if you use a WF as compared to a regular foot?

B: What do you do to keep the top layer from being pushed ahead of the foot and rolling over at the next cross stitch line?

Both of us were guiding and holding and working the fabric and no matter what we did we couldn't stop it from happening.

We'll have to rip most of the stitches out of this pad and start all over again, but we'll need to fix a couple problems before we waste any more time.

Thanks for all help.

Joe

GreyQ

One idea is have the fleece on top. It's easier for the walking foot to grab the fleece than the feed dogs. A long stitch, same weight thread top & bottom may help. Walking feet need oiling, too. Just a couple of random ideas. Good luck!

Candace

A: I lengthen my stitch to 2.5-3 when quilting. Piecing is around 2. I release the pressure a bit, otherwise the fabric on top won't always feed evenly. I do a test, but sometimes I do have to change tension when quilting. Usually it's lowering the upper tension by one or more. I usually always have to change tension when I FMQ and that's typically 2 less or so.

B: The top layer has to be pinned, fused with spray products or glue or at least stabilized in some way. All three layers have to be stable. Typically I pin as I don't like fusible batting at all.

Hope this helps.

I've had several WF stop working. They need to be disassembled and repaired. Sometimes the arm comes free or the springs inside are disengaged. Yes, i oil mine occasionally too.

J Miller

GreyQ,

Fleece on top is a thought we didn't try.
WF was lubed and just came unscrewed. I think some part inside got out of place. It was working fine until it unscrewed.
Machine was set on the longest stitch.

Candace,
I had my stitch length at the max. With this machine is about 7 stitches per inch ±.

I had the presser foot tension about in the middle of the adjustment and tightened it. I reversed what I'd heard before. I'll loosen it up.

We had pinned the quilt together in every square. Many of the pins got in the way and were removed as we made the stitch lines. Maybe by removing the pins we caused our problems.
Perhaps some prior planning on the location of the pins so they can remain as we quilt would help.

Thanks,

Joe

Candace

Fleece is a somewhat tricky fabric to quilt with because of the stretch. It takes some testing and trial and error to get it right. It probably would be easier to put as few quilting lines as you can get away with, and that depends on your brand of batting. The shifting you see is in part due to the stretch of the bottom fabric. It very well may be easier to quilt it fleece up as suggested. I don't quilt with fleece or other stretchy fabrics, though others do. I stick to cottons.

J Miller

Candace,

Our previous escapades with fleece was on the back of the cover I made for one of my treadle machines, and my denim lap quilt. The lap quilt was done with the stitch in the ditch and the treadle cover was done on a 3" diagonal pattern.
We didn't have any trouble with those.

But this is a different piece of fleece and a different machine so anything can happen.

I've got the WF fixed, a small lever fell out of place inside when it came unscrewed. So we're back in business there.

My wife is removing stitches on the pad now, so we'll put some of the ideas in action when she's done.

Thanks for the help.

Joe

katykwilt

Joe, when I get desperate with fabric slipping, I use the blue painters tape and stitch right beside it. Started this when I was using up some extra thick batting on a couple kids charity quilts and found the fabric bunched too much.