AnnieF

I love to machine quilt but only go to my walking foot and straight line quilting if I absolutely have to. I find I'm more apt to have tucks and bunches, and it takes me a lot longer than free motion. I just finished a challenge quilt for my guild which was a modern strip quilt depicting a "bar code" so everything had to be straight line....I set it aside because I think I'm going to have to press out some of the "bunches" I made. I really hate to re-do something.

Mamacat

I do straight line because I make a lot of t-shirt quilts and these heirloom t shirts have printing that will peel off if you sew through the printing. Therefore I use a straight stitch around my blocks, sashing and borders.

citruscountyquilter

I enjoy quilting with my walking foot but rarely do straight lines. Curves are easy to do. Yes it does take longer with the shifting and stops and starts and tying off and burying the thread ends but I'm not in a race to get things done and enjoying the journey. All of the quilting done on this quilt was done with a walking foot.

cathylynn

okay, citruscountyquilter - I am going to practice curves with my walking foot. Love your quilting

patricej

I bought a book years and years ago about using a walking foot for curved quilting. citruscountyquilter's work reminds me that i ought to dig it out and take the time to practice.

Straight or curved, using the walking foot does take longer. BUT my FMQ still stinks out loud so it's what i rely on most of the time. Otherwise the neighbors complain about the smell and the noise. LOL

ghquilter53

Free motion is always faster to get done than straight line or in the ditch. That's why I like it.

Maire

yes, it does take more time, I can FMQ a mile a minute, it seems, I'm running all over the quilt with feed dogs down & moving the fabric myself, but straight line, as I think you mean, the fabric can only move as fast as the feed dogs can move

Rhonda Lee

Ive always straight lined... now i'm getting serious with free motion and finding out I rather like it. Also learning some ruler work. This is all taking some time but hopefully it will be worth it.

rryder

If you have a ruler foot and a straight ruler designed for use with the ruler foot you could FMQ all those straight lines pretty quickly and they will end up being just as straight as if you'd used the walking foot. I find it's much easier to avoid tucks where lines cross when FMQing my straight lines with a ruler. I now do all straight line quilting, even stitch in the ditch work FMQ using a ruler foot and ruler-- it's saved me a lot of time and eliminated any problems with tucks where lines cross.

Rob