Free Motion Quilting Speed Control

22 responses to “Free Motion Quilting Speed Control”

1. You CAN teach yourself to sew with your other foot. Before my right hip surgery I couldn’t sew with my right foot for very long, so I forced myself to learn to use my left foot. Now I go back and forth between them, and when I’m quilting a design that needs a lot of pivoting it really works out well, because I can run the pedal with my left foot and operate the knee lifter with my right knee. This is your challenge to try!

   1. This is also a good way to head off back problems! Switching feet to stitch is an idea whose time is come.

2. I have been using a stitch regulator on my Bernini 770QE for the past 2 years since I bought it. My stitching was jerky and uneven. I am so glad you suggested Not to use the stitch regulator. My stitches are still uneven, but I feel like my rhythm is getting much smoother. Setting the speed lower is working well today. Thanks for this lesson!

3. Last year I also taught myself to use my left foot for the pedal, after foot issues for years, it has made my sewing hours more enjoyable. Just remember to switch your brain back to using the right foot when you get in to drive the car….(it only happened once)

4. Thank you, Lori, for all your tips. I haven’t actually begun sewing along yet, but I have doodled & applied your suggestions to the quilts I’m currently finishing. I never doodled, drawing flowers & other motifs has been very enjoyable and I it helped when quilting. I always sew barefoot & once I started listening to the machine quilting improved. It’s taken a while to find what speed works best for me, your comparison to driving is spot on. Vary your speed depending on road conditions.

5. I have a Brother machine and do not understand the reference to “back-kick”. Please explain.

   1. On a BERNINA foot control you can lean on the back of the foot pedal to lift the needle or tie a knot. It is programmable!

      1. Oooo! Cool!

      2. Thank you.

6. Great tips today, Lori! And thousands taking the class. Wow! I read the Bernina foot control article and did learn some useful things. One… put your whole foot on the foot control. Two, if you press on the heel, the needle goes down! Duh, how I never knew that, I’ll never know. And, per your suggestion, I’m trying barefoot! Just have to watch out for stray pins and needles on the floor!

7. I am very much enjoying this, practicing both on my little “sandwiches” and larger charity quilts, doing better with more even speed control and better at changing directions.

8. Speaking of needles on the floor, has anyone actually sewn something without dropping pins? At school sometimes I would stay late to finish something, and the nun who came in to sweep the room said, “Do you girls just throw pins on the floor on purpose?” She was just joking, but I can see what she’s talking about when I vacuum. I think of her every time I’m picking up those pins that just jump off my table.

   1. My friend gave me a tip about a magnet on the end of a telescoping handle. I bought one for $3 and it is worth so much more than that. I chase every pin that falls with it and never have to be concerned about where to step in bare feet..And I don’t have to lean over to pick them up! Saves my feet, saves hubby’s feet and saves my back!

      1. Yes! I have one of those, too! Well worth the cost!

9. The doodling helps a ton! My final doodle is often on my quilt with the crayola washable markers. I don’t try to follow it really, but it helps immensely with size and spacing. One thing I’m struggling with is I am going back and forth between a stand-up midarm (Simply Sixteen by HandiQuilter) and my domestic machine. On one, hand speed does control the speed of the needle, and the other one, it doesn’t. It is really hard to go between. Yet there are some things I would prefer to do on the domestic machine than figure out how to set up on the bigger one….

   1. Ellen, I too have a HQ 16. This is what I learned: raise the speed on the machine (faster for straighter quilting and slower for circles and cures) and move the machine itself slower. I also have posta-notes on the wall to remind me of best practices on the longarm as I do not use it as often as my domestic.
      Lori, I have always sewn barefoot. I started with a feather weight machine and used only my big toe on the presser foot. LOL

10. Thanks so much for these quilting lessons and demonstrations. It has me motivated to keep working. I am also a bare footed or sock footed sewer depending on the season. I like the grippy bottom socks so my pedal doesn’t slip away. I fully agree it gives me a better feel on adjusting the speed and coordinating my movements I just have to make sure one of my dogs doesn’t lay a paw or snout on it since they like to lay by me while I quilt. Earlier today, I finished my second sandwich while practicing straight line motifs. I practiced “in the round” quilting all the way around with the same motif then repeating in opposite direction or adding new motifs, so I got to do it right to left, top to bottom, left to right, and bottom to top. It is definitely more challenging in some directions then others. The same was true when I was doodling the different designs last night and this morning before quilting. I am loving the group support and seeing everyone else’s work.

11. I am using a grace q zone frame with a Juki tl2010, it has a 9″ throat space which limits my stitching space to around 5 -6″ . The speed control really works best for me because the alternative is one set speed. I find doodling very difficult…mainly what to doodle. I don’t seem to be very artistic or have much imagination so I pretty much copy what you have in your books. Do you have any tips for those of us using a frame/machine combination?

12. I know we are aiming for consistent stitches but are we trying to go slower for bigger stitches or smaller, tighter stitches?

13. I have never worn shoes when sewing. When I bought my last machine, a male salesperson was helping me when I first sat down to test out a machine. A female salesperson came by and asked if I had taken my shoe off when I started sewing. He replied that the first thing I had done was kick off my shoe. I hadn’t even realized that I had done that. It is a natural thing for me to do to shed the shoes when sewing!

14. I like selecting a comfortable maximum speed. I won’t zoom ahead if I accidentally step down hard on the pedal.😍

15. My machine has two settings, normal and “snail” (slow). The slow setting is too slow for me, I seem to move my fabric faster and get big stitches. So, I’m going to have to practice foot control.

    Thanks for sharing the Bernina foot control post. A lot of food for thought. I’ve always sewn with shoes on and my heel on the floor in front of my foot control and the ball of my foot on it. The foot control always walks away from me even though I have a rug pad under it. I’m going to try shifting my foot up so I’ve got the heel on my pedal. May also start taking my shoe off and start using my left foot because I’m doing research on machines and a knee lift is on my short list of must haves.