nannyrick

I have seen many say to leave the feed dogs "up", others say "down". Leah
Day says leave them up. I have a Juki 2010q and they say to absolutely, "drop
the feed dogs". I read the other day where one member says she gets better
stitches with them up.
What do you all think?

Prism99

You need to try out both ways yourself on a practice sandwich. It depends a lot on the specific machine and individual quilter. On my Bernina 1230, I found I had slightly better control when leaving the feed dogs up.

GrammaNan

Regular stitching I leave my feed dogs up. When I had a machine where I could FMQ I dropped them. I have never left the feed dogs down for regular stitching. I will follow this post to see what others have to say. Thanks for asking the question.

Terri D.

I've never heard of leaving the feed dogs up while attempting to free motion quilt. Can't say for certain, but it seems like leaving them engaged would interfere with the movement of the quilt sandwich??.....

GagaSmith

I always have the feed dogs up when piecing. When doing fmq I leave the feed dogs up, set the stitch width and length both to zero, and cover the machine bed with a Supreme Slider. Works great.

nannyrick

I failed to mention in my previous post that the feed dogs up and down
is for FMQ, not regular stitching. Thanks.

quiltsRfun

If you use a Supreme Slider it covers the feed dogs so there's no interference. I've tried it both ways. Lately I'm getting better results if I drop them.

Jim's Gem

I drop the feed dogs for FMQ. It may depend on your machine. Try it both ways and see what works best for you.

Jim's Gem

I think most people would understand what you meant. I drop them for FMQ on my Bernina

tapper

I do better FMQ with feed dogs up.
It's still not great FMQ but I feel that I have more control with them up.