Tamara

Does the darning foot stay up off the fabic all the time, or does it lay on fabic like reg foot.

SEW

My first attempt at free motion quilting was yesterday. I used a darning foot. The darning foot went down and up with the needle. It was such a different sewing experience! It came out pretty good and I feel encouraged to keep at it.

MadQuilter

The darning (or quilting) foot "rides" on the fabric, so it does not sit firmly on the fabric like a regular foot. You need to be able to move the fabric freely underneath the foot. However, you still need to bring the foot down with the lever as far as it will go. (I tried to do FMQ without the foot being engaged and the machine screamed at me. I didn't understand why because the foot LOOKED just fine.)

np3

:lol: :lol:

PaperPrincess

Mine hops. Starts out not touching but goes all the way down when the stitch is made, so it hops up and down.

Sadiemae

And some machines will make a big mess instead of "screaming" at you if you forget to lower the foot. Ask me how I know. lol

LMB

How can you stand the foot bouncing up and down? That drove me nuts so I tore the foot apart and removed the spring, put a tiny piece of wood in the slot to hold it stationary, and now it doesnt bounce around any more... just glides along on top of the material but only very slightly.

PaperPrincess

Dunno. It's the foot I started FMQ with, so I guess I'm just used to it. There probably are 5 or 6 different feet on my machine that I could use for FMQ. This seems to work the best for me. Oh, just remembered, I have a Viking and there is a special setting for the spring foot, maybe this makes it bounce less??

Tamara

Okay thanks, I used mine today but since the foot didn't touch the bottom I wanted to make sure thats the was it works. I did ok for the first time but its going to take lots of practice.

rusty quilter

I have a Pfaff and can use my darning foot to FMQ or the actual quilting foot, which basically has a bigger hole that I can see easier through.