Instructions for Quilting with Walking Feet
When you want to machine quilt, but don't want to do free-motion quilting, a simple straight or slightly curved line is often the best choice. However, the bulk of the three layers of your quilt are often too thick to easily pass between your presser foot and feed dogs without distorting your quilt. You'll need to use a walking foot to quilt, and while sewing machine walking feet look like boxy alien contraptions, they are easy to put on your machine and quilt with once you get the hang of it.
Things You'll Need
- Sewing machine
- Sewing machine screwdriver
- Walking foot attachment
- Basted quilt layers (bottom, batting and top)
Instructions
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1
Raise the presser foot on your machine and turn the hand wheel to bring the needle up. Take off the current presser foot by hand or with a screwdriver to turn the thumb screw which holds the foot to the presser bar of the machine.
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2
Orient the walking foot so the box-like portion is facing away from you with the part that more resembles a presser foot facing toward you. Hold the walking foot in your right hand and lift the arm-like lever on the right of the walking foot with your thumb.
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3
Hold the walking foot behind the presser bar and bring it forward. As you bring it forward you'll need to align the left side foot portion to the presser bar while also slipping the arm of the walking foot over the needle clamp screw on the right.
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4
Tighten the thumb screw to hold the walking foot to the presser bar with your left hand. The arm portion of the walking foot does not attach to any portion of the machine, but it must sit above the needle clamp.
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5
Bring your basted quilt to the machine and adjust it under the walking foot where you desire to quilt it and lower the presser foot. Hold your thread in your left hand while rotating the hand wheel one rotation to bring up the bobbin thread.
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6
Hold both threads together and sew a few backstitches to lock the thread in place. Run the sewing machine at a low to medium speed as you become more comfortable quilting with the walking foot.
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Create straight lines by running the machine as you would for sewing, or form quilted curves which arc back and forth along the fabric by turning the quilted layers slowly while the machine is running at a steady speed.
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Tips & Warnings
The clicking noises of your walking foot running are normal and to be expected. As the needle rises and falls, the arm of your walking foot does too so the thick layers of your quilt can pass through without pressure.
You can also use your walking foot when attaching binding strips to the quilt to keep the fabric from puckering.
Free-motion quilting should be done with a darning foot, never with a walking foot.
References
- Photo Credit quilt image by Edsweb from Fotolia.com
