feline fanatic

I would just mark the quilt and follow the marked line with my walking foot instead. Doing ruler work on a sitdown domestic seems like a lot more work and frustration than it is worth.

Tartan

I made my own by gluing a couple of tiny washer on top, I remove it every time I do a bobbin. Not as good as a purchased one but I think the Westalee ones are adjustable. If you will faithfully remove the foot every time you want to change the bobbin or re thread your machine then you should be okay. Just forgetting once will cause damage. The extra height on the foot does not allow the needle bar to come down fully and the needle will hit your bobbin case not the hole!

ManiacQuilter2

I have an older Bernina 1530 and I wouldn't do anything that would damaged my baby. I don't understand this ruler bit. I tried using an Omni ruler to sew some straight lines It worked OK but keeping the ruler on the quilt while it is moving takes a bit of coordination that I just don't have. It is just as easy to mark the lines with chalk and stitch.

mckwilter

I agree with Maniac. I have a 440 and wouldn't even try using a ruler. Even if you want to quilt curves, you can do it by marking the lines and using a walking foot.

OhCanada

The appeal of ruler work is that you drop the feed dogs and go into FMQ mode, so you can move the ruler and go in any direction, no more turning your quilt everytime you need to change direction and you can fill in areas between your lines with stippling etc and not have to break your thread to do so. I find that the throat space on my 440 is really small.

After reading all your comments I have decided to wait until Bernina (or someone else) comes out with a ruler foot that is safe to use on the 440 I've had my 440 for at least 8 years so I don't think it is under warranty any longer - but I certainly don't want to have to bring it in for repairs! Tartan put the scare into me with her statement that forgetting even once not to raise the foot while in needle down position will cause damage. Lol. I know myself - I would forget.

Thanks for all your comments/advice!

quiltstringz

I totally agree with this - one of the reasons for using rulers on a longarm is that there are no feed dogs. No way would I try to use this especially since they said there were issues!

quiltstringz

Actually while most of the common things are not under warranty there are some parts that if memory serves me that are still under warranty

quiltstringz

Also try marking a sample and then dropping your feed dogs and see how you do free hand following the lines. I think that once you get comfortable with a speed and the look of your stitches you could do this without the ruler. Worth a try

Alice PD

I have also made my own ruler foot for my Bernina 830 by using Foot 26 and gluing a 1/4 inch steel spacer (bought at Local Hardware Store) to it. It works fine, but I cannot do a full circle because the foot interferes with moving the ruler behind it. The new Bernina Foot #96 looks perfect. I have used my make-shift foot to do crosshatch quilting among other designs. It is very useful. Because I am using the ruler, I can go a little quicker and my lines are perfect. Even straight lines are straighter. I would definitely buy this foot and have tried to find someone to sell it to me. No luck so far. I am always careful with my machine. Would you please share with me your dealers name and phone or email address?

OhCanada

I sent you a PM with the dealer info.