Boston1954

I am too chicken to try large stuff, but I do little things like placemats by tracing out the shape I want onto parchment paper, sewing around it and then tearing the paper away.

tscweaves

Elongated "S" works too. I received that recommendation when I was not sure how to quilt a wall hanging.. This is what it looked liked before binding, it worked great for the pattern the fabrics made:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]578057[/ATTACH]

Quilt30

Walking foot works great with Baptist Fan motif.

MsHeirloom

I started by drawing a small circle- trace around a coin or thread spool, then start veering off to about 3/8" about 3/4 of the way around that circle. Keep going around and around. Once I had to stop at the edges of the quilt, I started filling in the four corners. I kept the edge of the walking foot against the previous row in order to space the quilting which is about 3/8-1/2" apart. It took about 8 hours to do the quilt which measured about 45" X 60." My walking foot may be a bit wider than some as it is the one that came with my Janome 6600 which has a built in even-feed function. It is tricky to get started on the initial couple (tight) spirals, but gets much easier as the spirals get larger and the curve shallower. I practiced first on a couple hot pads to get the feel for it. It would also be helpful to practice drawing the initial 2-3 rows.

QuiltE

Thanks for the mini-tutorial, MsHeirloom ... I can only imagine how tough it is to keep doing the turn at the start of the spiral. Well Done!

Faintly Artistic

You may enjoy this big post on 31 days of quilting with walking foot. Some good ideas.
http://blog.petitdesignco.com/2012/1...lting.html?m=1

suern3

leahday.com has some instructions and tips for walking foot quilting. Today she features tips from another quilter who also does walking foot designs. Leah Day also has many youtube videos and some Craftsy classes. She started out a few years ago with great FMQ instructions but lately has been adding walking foot and sit down machine quilting. Well worth checking out IMHO.

nativetexan

I've done fairly nice curved quilting lines with my walking foot on. in sashings or borders.

Prism99

I still think the easiest way to start using a walking foot is to do gentle curves from one side of the quilt to the other. There is no need to space them exactly apart; it looks organic to just do them somewhat randomly. Here is a couple of examples of "wave" quilting:
https://ameetsz.wordpress.com/2011/0...quilting-post/
https://weallsew.com/free-motion-qui...asics-day-two/

Waves can be made more complex too:
http://betteroffthread.com/2013/03/0...ting-tutorial/

One of my tips is to heavily starch the top and backing before layering. This help stabilize fabrics so that you don't get distortion as you quilt. It is especially helpful if you are doing cross-hatching or some other design that requires you to cross quilting lines; it will help prevent tucks at the crossing points. It's helpful for all designs, though.

Another of my tips is to spray baste if you can (glue basting may be good also; I just have never done it). Spray basting ensures that all parts of all three layers are bonded together. This again reduces chances of fabrics distorting as you sew (especially stretching along the quilting lines); it also helps keep the batting from shifting as you quilt.

I like the spiral quilting, so I went online to do a little more research. Here are some interesting websites I found on quilting spirals and circles with a walking foot:
http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.com...g-success.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/myquil...ool-howtoqayg/ (spiral is off-set)

Kassaundra

I did spiral quilting w/ a walking foot on a wall hanging, and found if you make the stitch length shorter for those first few tight spirals it makes it easier to keep the curve true.