Sunday, January 16, 2011

Free Motion Quilting - I got it!!!

My attempts at free motion quilting before have had bad results.  It was all tangled thread and broken needles.  I managed to make it work, once, a little, which came out very awkward looking, as if a wrestling match had taken place between me and the machine (which isn't far from the truth).

Was thinking of taking a quilting class next month.  I wouldn't usually, because there aren't many things I can't figure out on my own, but I was seriously having no luck with this and decided to actually pay for help.  Reading the supply list for the class, and it says I have to have a walking foot and darning foot.  My lovely gift from God, that Pfaff, has the IDT built in, so I don't need a walking foot.  It came with a darning foot too.  Light bulbs started going on.  I knew the Pfaff had a "free motion quilting foot" available, but I hadn't gotten to the point of purchasing it yet.  But what about the darning foot? 

I hadn't carefully read the instructions in the Pfaff manual for darning before; I read them now.  "Darning" is free motion, that's the whole idea.  There's a special setting on the Pfaff for darning, wherein the presser foot is half lowered and the thread tension is engaged.  Lower the feed dogs and away you go. I tried it and it worked perfectly! 

Can NOT believe how simple this is.  Amazing once you get it right.  Amazing what the German engineers built in there for our stitching pleasure (that's my favorite part).

It's a breeze!  Just like one of the Youtube ladies had said in a video that didn't help me at all, "It's just like doodling."