katmom54

well...I decided that I had to learn to machine quilt - it is faster and easier (so I thought) than handquilting and more practical for donation quilts. I got my walking foot, asked a few questions from this group and even got some nice fabric sent to me . I watched the videos on sandwiching, got my clips and safety pins, my basting spray... had a little practice on another kids quilt - not too bad, but a little awkward - only one little pleat on the backside (excited and impatient so I didn't anchor the sandwich as well as I should have.)

..so...Got my top together, put the munchkin to bed, and thought " I think I will get this one quilted tonight so I can send it along this week to the charity"...
HA!
What a pain!!! i could not move that quilt through the walking foot without almost planting my foot on the machine and dragging the sandwich through the machine. I barely got through one time across the quilt. What am I doing wrong? And of course after all that dragging and misery, most of the stitches that I had to rip out were 'teeny tiny stitched too long in one place' stitches... I tried a sample before I started and it seemed to be ok then..but when I tried to actually do the quilt, it was awful.
IS there something I am missing? It is flannel on both sides, and I used a poly batting cause I wanted to keep it lightweight...do you think it is too thick? Wouldn't the walking foot take care of that to some degree? I was hoping to whip through a bunch of give-a-way quilts by machine quilting, but if it is that difficult, I won't be doing flannel again.
Unless someone has a solution, I will be checking out the 'how to tie your quilt' tutes instead of sleeping in this weekend.

GrammaNan

Have you tried a darning foot and lowering or covering your feed dogs? I have had problems with fleece and flannel before. Sorry you had such a rough time.

littlehud

Flannel on flannel and batting may be a little thick but my walking foot usually handles it OK. Do you have the quilt supported on a table to help with the drag. That's a lot of weight to have pulling on the quilt.

wvdek

Lower your feed dogs, gently maneuvre your quilt around
(I use latex gloves on my hands to help move the fabric), and zoom away. Again, lower your feed dogs.

Prism99

Heavily starching both the backing fabric and top may help everything slide better, and also keep the flannel from stretching as you sew.

The small stitches may be caused by drag from the flannel, both underneath and on top. It is possible to lighten the presser foot pressure on your machine? Waxing the flat surface of your machine or using a super-slider type sheet may help too.

Candace

If you can decrease you foot pressure on your walking foot, that may help you. If you've got a newer, computerized machine, you should be able to do this easily.

amma

Also try lengthening your stitch :wink:

BKrenning

Flannel is clingy and the poly batting may be slippery causing the flannel to go one way and the batting another. The flannel is also thicker than regular cotton so you might need to lighten the presser foot pressure which can't be done on some machines. I can do it on 2 of mine but the 3rd one, it is what it is. If you can't decrease the pressure, definitely try starching the snot out of the flannel or putting on the darning foot and dropping/covering the feed dogs and do a wavy line instead of stitch in the ditch or go full blown free motion.

Another issue with flannel is the tremendous amount of fuzz it leaves behind. That may have built up in your feed dogs and walking foot causing them not to work as well or at all. You'll have to clean them often with flannel. Starching will help control the fuzz but it won't eliminate it.

katmom54

thanks all, I may try one more time. I guess the good news is that this is not a crucial project, but every time I see those machine quilted beauties I wanna do it too. Am hoping for a local class this fall to give me some tips too...

grann of 6

When I am using my walking foot I let it do all the work, don't pull on the fabric, just guide it. I use a longer stitch length and don't drop the feed dogs, and just stitch away, removing pins as necessary. This may not be the right way, but works for me. I use a lot of flannel and always use a cotton batting. I don't like the polyesters any more. They tend to creep through the fabric over time and are just hard to work with. Bamboo batting works well too.