Free Motion Quilting with Walking Foot

Problem: Quilt must be quilted. (Husband is planning on giving it as Christmas gift.) No long arm (on my must have list). Excess fabric in 4 areas where in-the-ditch quilting is creating bunching up of fabric and that is NOT good.

Solution: The Wavy Line Walking Foot Stitch

Using my walking foot I created large wavy lines across the largest blocks throughout my quilt and the outside border. This was enough to "quilt out" some fullness in some of the fabric. I set my stitch length between 3 and 3 1/2...not too small and not too big. The rest of the quilt was done in-the-ditch.

Pattern from Atkinson Designs Slide Show

Until I purchase a long arm quilting machine I will be experimenting with free motion quilting using my walking foot although it isn't really free motion. I like using the walking foot because it keeps the stitch length regular. Other than the obvious straight line cross hatching and in the ditch quilting ( which are excellent ways to quilt, by the way) I have come up with what I call the Wavy Line Walking Foot Stitch.

I will be doing more sharing as I pursue the limits of my walking foot. So far I have used the Wavy Line for large blocks and a border in the same quilt. All my waves were irregular which helped to ease in some excess fabric which I really needed. I knew in the ditch was not going to work because I had too much fabric in certain areas and it would just bunch up.

For the border I like the visual of 3 wavy lines randomly done. I choose thread to match the fabric to because I don't want the quilting to stand out.

I will be doing more with my walking foot and sharing the results so stay tuned.

Quilting Spirals with Walking Foot