Feet!
I was hoping for a finish this morning but I’m running late, so this turned out to be a post on using the right foot for your machine. I am a BERNINA girl, so you’ll see BERNINA feet, but the same goes for your brand.
Let me set the stage – I’m trying to finish a little wall hanging made from Kellie Willey‘s Little Modern Mini pattern. I auditioned a few background fabrics and these 3 made the cut:
At the time I thought this was it. On a whim, I tried orange:
Hands down, this was the win.
I decided it needed ruler work, a good call. I freehanded the pieced blocks, which you can readily tell if you look closely (don’t you dare!)
I hope to have a finish posted next week.
Which brought me to a great lesson on feet – you MUST use the correct foot for your machine to get the best results. Always. This is such a great example for your choice of ruler foot.
If you are going to do ruler work,
get the ruler foot for your machine, not a generic.
Okay, this is just my opinion, but it is strongly held and for good reason. Yes, I know the ruler foot for your machine is a zillion dollars, more expensive than any of your regular feet. But there is a lot of design and engineering in that foot and it is worth it. The BERNINA foot is something like $85 and most other brands are less, but in the $60 range.
Here’s why:
My BERNINA foot in action. Note the high walls around the perimeter, the prominent notch in the front, the marking of the center of the foot’s front, the great visibility around the needle area. This is what you want…and pay for.
Generic foot. Allegedly, because it’s clear, you get superior visibility. Not. Note how the line behind the foot is distorted, skewed to the right? Yeah. You say it’s distorted because I don’t have the foot aligned with the line. How would I know – there is no marking of the center point on the front of the foot.
Worse yet, the level of the cutout on the front is right at the level of the ruler. When that ruler is in front of the foot, it is super easy for the ruler to slide up over the foot at the notch. Not. Good.
If you try ruler work out using a generic foot (until you decide if you like it enough to invest in the foot made for your machine), it’s likely you will not enjoy ruler work. It’s too fussy and you have wobbly lines and you can’t see where you’re going.
Get the ruler foot for your machine.
Another trend making the rounds is to use your ruler foot for free motion quilting even when not using a ruler. Nope:
I’m trying to make a spiral with my ruler foot on. How on earth can I make those lines evenly spaced? The fat profile of the ruler foot obliterates my view of the stitching at the beginning of the spiral.
Same spot, proper foot. Huge difference, greatly increased visibility. Ruler feet are for ruler work, free motion feet are for most of your other free motion work.
In other news, I saw my Grandson over the weekend! He lives in the San Francisco Bay area, about 2 hours from me. As a gift to my Daughter-in-law, I made 4 days of meals plus leftovers, filling their frig:
Those were both packed to the brim! I know they appreciated that and besides, the Little Guy is not ready to go out to eat. We enjoyed great meals together, at home, without the hassle of prep or travel.
My son and DIL do not wish to have their son’s image all over social media so you won’t see photos of him here. Sniff, sniff; I would love to show you how adorable he is!
You get to see the top of his little head and that New Gramma Smile (NGS)! I’ve seen that smile all over my FaceBook timeline. There is nothing like a NGS, no vacation photos top it, no standing-in-front-of-my-award-winning-quilt-smiles can top it. I am now a part of the club and loving it!
I love it when seasons of my favorites converge – it’s prime artichoke season and the Suma orange is still available. Heaven! BTW, the Suma is so huge that one Suma is 150 calories. Let me interpret that – it is equivalent to 3 squares of Trader Joe’s Organic Dark Chocolate! Life can be filled with the most difficult of decisions…
I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Please tell me the # of that FMQ foot. I need it!
Yes, you do need it! It’s #15, technically an embroidery foot but and excellent fmq foot for most applications.
HUGE congratulations on the new grand baby! The top of his head is adorable, and I love your NGS.
I couldn’t agree more with you about the ruler foot. I tried three different ones on my Bernina before the official one was available, and I hated them all. The wildly popular Westalee foot didn’t even allow my needle to be centered in the circle. The one made for the Bernina is perfect, which is why I also bought the stippling foot to use for whatever non-ruler free-motion work I want to do. Having that height adjustment is amazing!
Yes, he has an adorable top of head, no? That is interesting to hear Sandy, sometimes I wonder if I’m just easily annoyed by generic feet. It does make a difference!
I cannot see the needle on the two ‘generic foot’ pictures also the pictures look the same. Am I going blind?
Thank you! That is the second big correction I’ve made on this post. I put the correct photo in to show the level of the ruler and the front of the foot. I didn’t have time to edit – can you tell?
What a cute little quilt – but truly – the baby head stole the show!! haha! How fun to have a new grandbaby!! and how sweet to take food – I am sure that was appreciated!
I am loving being a Gramma!
CONGRATULATIONS, you new-grandma-you!!! I can smell that sweet baby head smell right through my computer monitor, and yes, that is the best smile ever! I’m in total agreement with you about the feet. I tried a generic ruler foot while we were waiting patiently (not!) for the Bernina ruler foot to be introduced. Sold it! When you put a generic foot on a Bernina, it’s like putting the wrong size tires on your car. If you’re lucky, you might still get where you need to go, but it’s not gonna be a smooth ride… ;-)
Oh you smell him too? Sweet baby smell. I love that analogy about the tires. I may be quoting you in the future!
I haven’t gotten into using a ruler foot….yet. When I do, I’ll buy the correct foot for my machine. That is a good rule for whatever application you are addressing! Ever notice how men always have the right tool for the job? We deserve the same!
Absolutely, the right equipment is a must! Ruler feet do challenge that adage though since they are so expensive.
What’s ruler quilting? How does the ruler foot help?
Thanks in advance,
Tina in San Diego
Hi Tina; Ruler quilting is a way of quilting a straight line with free motion quilting. If I tried to quilt a straight line without a ruler’s help, it would end up wobbly. If I guide my presser foot next to a straight edge, the quilted line will be straight. A ruler foot has a high wall surrounding the needle. That high wall keeps the foot from sliding onto the ruler and killing the needle. I hope that made sense? Write me back if it doesn’t. Good question!
Jenny, Congrats on your precious grandson! I loved the comment about how he smells…I do love the smell of babies…the most wonderful smell in the world…most of the time ?. I saw your segment on The Quilt Show on FMQ motifs done with fabric patterns. I am patiently waiting…well maybe not so patient…for delivery of my new Q20 and that is going to be one of my first projects to do while learning the machine. Thanks, Kim in the springtime beauty of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
Thank you Kim! You will have fun using fabric patterns as your inspiration for fmq. Oh, a Q20! I am jealous!! I can only imagine how beautiful spring is in the Shenandoah Valley.