Free Motion Quilting on a Pfaff Quilt Expression 2048

[Juliet W.]

I am particularly interested to ask if anyone is free motion quilting on this machine. I took a class in Houston and thought one day I might get the hang of that and I brought home my sample. On the Pfaff 2048 there is a special position for the needle foot for doing FMQ, sort of half way between all down and up. I have worked out how to put on the FMQ foot I have, it is a Pfaff one but not very brilliant and I have tried various times but the quilt sandwich seems so far beneath the foot to me. Also I lower the feed dogs as instructed and lift the IDT thing to the Off position. I find this hard to explain but in Houston the machine was a Janome and I really enjoyed trying to do stippling and other stuff. With my machine it is a nightmare and not enjoyable, does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I tried it on my sample from Houston so it's not the sandwich.

[Norma H.]

I don't know your machine model but when I tried to FMQ on my old Pfaff, I were in trouble. It skipped stitches all the time. Someone told me that it was a problem that could be solved if I explained it to a technician. I never got to that because in the meantime I bought a Bernina and there I could do it. You don't write if you have other problems than the distance to the quilt. If that is the only one you just might need practice. I understand perfectly what you explain with the presser foot set in a middle position. Mine had the same way to do it. It sets tension on the thread.
I'm not of much help here, I'm afraid, but maybe if you have a technician nearby it would be worth talking to him or her.
Good luck!

[Rita C.]

Juliet I used to have a Pfaff Expression 2 which I think came after your model but I could never get it to do FMQ well. I used both it's darning foot and a one I had for the Pfaff Select 4 and while I could get them to work it was never good enough. I would get skipped stitches or thread breaking. I disliked it so much that I replaced it for a Janome Horizon and I have never regretted it. I think that is probably the one you tried at Houston - it's a dream for FMQ.

But just to be sure, here is a photo of my Pfaff with the darning foot on and the presser foot lever up. Did you have the clear plastic thingy over the needle screw (in the photo I am pointing to it with a chop stick.)?


And here's a photo of the foot with the lever in the 'half'way' position for FMQ. There is about 1/2 a chopctick width under the foot.


If the only time you tried FMQ was at Houston on a Janome the the comparison is like driving an automatic Rolls Royce and a good family car.

The only other thought that strikes me is that Patsy Thompson uses Pfaff machines and her classes in FMQ are here in the TQS classroom.

Good luck.

[Juliet W.]

Rita, thanks so much for that. Yes, it took me a while but I finally got the foot on correctly. I don't know about skipping stitches but the action is totally un-smooth and it seemed to me that I might take forever to master it. With the IDT I have done very good machine applique and straight line quilting, even some slightly curvy ones but all with the feed dogs up and the IDT engaged. I'm really grateful for the information as I was almost sure it was me (typical female of my generation!) and now I know I am not going to try to do FMQ on this machine. There are so many other techniques like sewing curved pieces or finally making my One Block Wonder quilt that I will just forget about FMQ and remember that I once sat down and sewed on a Rolls Royce! I will though have a look at the Patsy Thompson class. Thank you to Zarah as well, my machine doesn't skip stitches just is incredibly uneven and irregular.

[Rita C.]

There is one other thought that comes to mind Juliet, try FMQ with the feed dogs up. I find I have slightly more control when I do this on both of my machines. Good luck,

[Rita C.]

There is one other thought that comes to mind Juliet, try FMQ with the feed dogs up. I find I have slightly more control when I do this on both of my machines. Good luck,

I've come across this advice - to leave the feed dogs up and the stitch length to zero.

[Juliet W.]

How interesting, I will certainly try that - I have heard the feed dogs up argument before but not the stitch length to zero which kind of makes sense as the stitch length comes from the speed you put the fabric under the foot. ( is that right?) Makes me realise what a genius invention the stitch regulator is!

[Kathryn S.]

I used to do all my FMQ on a Pfaff 7570. I even took it to a weeklong class with Diane Gaudynski at Asilomar! i loved quilting on that machine, except for the small harp space, which is why i got a janome 6600 and then moved on to a handiquilter sweet 16 sitdown. The middle position for the foot is a little hard to figure out at first- I have heard people call it the "mezzanine" which is a little floor between the two main floors, which makes sense. Once you get the foot on correctly as i saw in the photos, you should be good to go. Feed dogs up or down doesn't make much difference that I've experienced. I leave them down so I don't wear out the feed dog mechanism!

The two main things that make a BIG difference for FMQ are having a flat surface to work on and having some kind of slippery surface. I had a plexiglass extension table for the Pfaff, and I always use a teflon sheet on the table surface, even with the HQ machine. The brand I use is called "sew slip" but there are other brands. the sew slip sticks on the table surface by itself.

And of course, as we've all heard, Practice, Practice, Practice! Keep at it, at some point you will find yourself doing it more easily and it will be fun!
Kathy

[Juliet W.]

I have a rather small extension table but good enough to practice on the squares as suggested by Patsy Thompson in the FMQ class, I remember that I bought the slippery thing on a trip so I will have to search for that too. Thanks for the advice Kathy.