Bernina walking foot and

[Martha D.]

the circular attachment. Have any of you ever tried to use these two tools together? The instructions that come with the circular attachment plainly say that it can be used with any foot, but I'm wondering if that includes the walking foot.

And yes, I know, I can just hook it all up and give it a try, but I think it might be cheaper to ask first. LOL

Thanks!

[Martha D.]

Since apparently no one else has ever tried this combination, I'll tell you how my experiment fared.

When I finally got my nerve up to try the two tools together, mechanically all was fine. But what happened was that the weight of the wall hanging sized quilt created enough of a drag on the circular attachment to make it hang up, creating really tiny stitches, despite the efforts of the walking foot to keep things moving along.

The other thing that happened was that the sliding gauge part of the circular attachment kept moving on me, which distorted those perfect circles I was hoping for.

Of course, some of this could very well be due to my inexperience with machine quilting. Perhaps tape or something could possibly stop that sliding gauge.

We shall see.

[Margo C.]

Could you try that combination on a smaller piece of fabric and let us know how it works? Or maybe just stitching slow enough that you can be sure that the fabric isn't putting strain on the needle area. I'm thinking that the issue is the excess weight distorting the circle, which should be manageable.

[Martha D.]

I have done as you suggested, Margo, and I think I see what's causing most of the problem. When I tried the tool combination on a smaller test sandwich with plain fabric on the back and front and the same batting inside, there was no problem. But then my quilts are never just solid fabric, back and front, so that didn't do me much good.

Then I tried the same thing on a very small piece, 14x14 or so. The top is a leftover trial of the watercolor quilt idea - remember those? Lots of 1 inch squares which had already been quilted in the ditch. With this piece, the stitching did not hang, producing the teeny stitches which I kept getting on my larger piece. BUT. The fabric bunches up toward that spike and its little cap on the circular attachment as the quilt makes its circuit around it. My attempts to keep this from happening causes the circle quilting to become distorted.

In the photo (which I hope will show up here, I have attached it), the two circles with the blue arrows show you what happened. This shows the back of the little quilt. Both those flat sides were on the final arc of the circle. The circle with the green check mark in it was the third attempt, and turned out better, but only with great effort at smoothing out that humping toward the center. The circle with the red check mark was done with the walking foot alone, along a marked line, with no circular attachment. The red one is about as good as the green one, with a whole lot less stress.

[Margo C.]

Are you willing to try one more thing? Your fabrics look very soft to me in that picture. Could you try really starching a couple of pieces of fabric so that they are pretty stiff, then layering them with a batting. See if a stiffer sandwich works better. I think a perfectly round circle really needs a perfectly flat foundation to spin around the center pin.

I use starch in ALL of my projects, but I know that they will be laundered as soon as they are done to get the chemicals out. That may not be an option for your project, but it's good to know if it makes a difference in the process.

[Nan T.]

Hello,
I tried something similar for this quilt but not with a walking foot.
The problem I had was the bulk of the whole quilt pulling and in trying to to use 'fancy' stitches as actual quilting.
I had to keep the needle in the down position while I moved the quilt round so as not to lose the place in the stitch pattern. Obviously when the quilt is pinned to the attachment and with the needle down it was anchored in two places and so you can't swivel. I eventually just used the 'fancy' stitiches around circular freezer paper templates. It worked OK for me - not perfect but good enough.
I think if you click on the photo it will give you a close up of the stitches.
Nan

[Margo C.]

What a great addition to your border, Nan! Thanks for sharing!

[Teri L.]

one other thing to try too...Bernina makes a teflon foot.

[Martha D.]

Margo, I haven't replied to your starch idea, because I had to go out and buy a can of the stuff. I can't remember what I tried to do with starch and fabric years ago, only that it made a huge mess. LOL

But having thought further about that, I was successful with using the walking foot in combination with the circular attachment on a simple test sandwich. That one didn't need any starch. It's the actual quilt that causes the problem. I'd be willing to spray that watercolor piece with starch to see how that works out, but the original piece I am trying to use these tools on wouldn't benefit from it.

I'm going to stick another picture in here, because it's sort of hard to explain. The circles are fused on to the background, which is a convergence quilt that didn't turn out to suit me. So there are lots of seams beneath those circles. Combined with the fusing, the circles are pretty stiff already. I don't think starch is going to make much difference - unless I starch the back?

I managed to use the circular attachment with the satin stitching, with a tear-away paper stabilizer underneath. This was just the top - before the batt and back. The only problem I had there was my inexperience with satin stitching.

In trying to go back and quilt around the outside of these circles, well, that's where it all went to pieces. In attempting the circles that didn't surround those fused pieces, it went a little better, though it wasn't as stiff. I am only a beginner with FMQ, as I am sure you can see from the photo. But I am even now getting better circles with FMQ than with all the fancy tools I thought would make it easy for me.

Nan, I almost always sew with my needle stopped down, and the satin stitching would have created the same anchoring in two places you mentioned, though your explanation certainly makes sense. With the walking foot, maybe it was closer to three anchors? But that didn't hang up and distort.

I suppose I could use stabiliser on the back of the quilt, but at that point, it would be easier to just keep practicing the FMQ until I get control of it.

Thank you all for your input here!