free motion quilting on a Wheeler and Wilson
 

Hello from Coastal North Carolina!

I've recently acquired a Wheeler and Wilson D 9 treadle, she's in very good shape just needing the usual things,
bobbins and belts :) I have that figured out thanks to Ebay.
My question is this ..The WW is quite different from the Singer treadle I learned to sew on. Can it be set up to free montion quilt? If so how?

I would be grateful for any help/advice

Happy treadling!

Sherry

I would think the only thing you would really need to do is to loosen the presser foot tension. I do free-motion on my machine with the feed dogs up. It gives you a good rhythm to move with. It would help if you could use a free-motion or darning foot, but I don't know if one was made for that machine.

Welcome, Sherry. Have you done FMQ on other treadles or any other machine?

I'm going to go out on a limb to try to answer, as I do not do FMQ. I do read quite a bit and research things. From my understanding, to FMQ is much like darning, embroider or what Singer called "Art Work." Generally speaking, one would reduce the pressure on the presser bar and use a special foot. Some machines have feed dogs that drop, some have covers to cover the feed dogs and some people just put the stitch length at 0 and do nothing to the feed dogs. As for the special foot, there are many different ones that will fit modern machines, but not the Wheeler & Wilson as the foot attaches differently. As it turns out, evidently there was one that was made for Singer machines that are actually Wheeler & Wilson machines. The chances of finding one would probably be considered unobtainium. You may get lucky and some day find one in a box of attachments. It is Singer part number 226029 and seen in a couple of parts lists such as on pages 10, 24 and 34 of https://www.supsew.com/download/Sing...91W1,%20W7.pdf or https://web.archive.org/web/20150912...rts/91W1_7.pdf. It is also listed in a Singer 61W parts list.

There are also items called darning springs or needle springs that attach to the needle clamp that may work. I have a darning spring that I put on a Singer 301 and darned a sock. It worked well. https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...arnspg-301.jpg

Good luck and have fun.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)