Darning foot for echo quilting...

Your site is great, and I'm wondering if you can help a desperate quilter!

When sewing, there is always a spot on my presser foot that I can use as a guide for my sewing to keep things straight. The darning foot is oval, and I can't seem to find a spot on the foot to follow and help keep things lined up. Does this make sense? I want to do echo quilting and use the foot as a guide for spacing, but I'm wondering if it is even possible.

Thanks for your help!

ANSWER:

There are a couple of options to solve your problem...

OPTION 1: I would use a REMOVABLE marker to mark the top of your foot with a line, both left and right of the needle. This line should be the same distance from the needle as the front and back of the oval foot is from the needle. The problem with this solution is that there is no place to mark the diagonal. But it would be an improvement.

IF this works for you, THEN, and only then, mark the lines with a permanent marker.

OPTION 2: Give yourself a bit of time of practice the "echoing" distance that you want to use. Draw some of the shapes you'll be echoing on a practice quilt sandwich AND also draw the echoing lines the distance you want to use on the finished project. Your eye will learn the distance as you practice, just like it did for free motion stipple quilting. Click on "Echo Quilting" for more helpful tips on how to echo quilt.

OPTION 3: Purchase a round darning foot. That way all the sides are an equal distance away from the needle.

My darning foot is round with an opening in the front so that there's nothing between my eyes and the needle and is my favorite darning foot. I find when I am echo quilting that my eyes are watching the size of the "puff" between the lines of echo quilting and a little ahead so that I know where I'm going, instead of the line of stitching itself.

I hope you find this information useful. Let me know how it works out. Even better, come back and post pictures of your quilts in our Show and Tell at:

www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/quilt-pictures.html#INV

And thank you for your kind words about our website. They make it all worthwhile!

Happy Quilting!

Julie Baird
Editor

This article was printed from Generations-Quilt-Patterns.com