Quilting Speed Control-A Machine Quilting Quick Tip

Good Morning, Quilters!

Let’s start the week with a quick tip on quilting speed control.

But first, a big thank you to all who commented and shared their stories on Friday-Nurse and Doctor Appreciation.

And I LOVED all the stories about readers of LKQ being saved by penicillin as young children!  –Be sure to the read the comments from Saturday’s post!

BERNINA 770QE
Quilting Speed Control

Many sewing machines, including my lovely BERNINA 770QE, offer a speed control slider.  In the above photo,  the slider is left of the screen and to the right of the thread guide.  The slider is marked with a minus sign (-)  and plus sign(+).

The slider allows you to adjust the speed from very slow to full speed.

Controlling the Maximum Speed of the Machine

When the speed slider is moved to the left (toward the minus sign) the machine limits the maximum speed of the machine. The farther to the left, the slower the machine maximum.

However, when the speed slider is positioned fully to the right, the machine does not limit the maximum speed of the sewing machine.

Where Should YOU Place the Slider

Some quilters adjust the slider to the middle of the speed limit.  Then they put their pedal to the metal-full force on the foot pedal-and this forces them to stitch at a consistent speed.

Stitching at a consistent speed is (mostly) a good thing.  With speed held at a consistent speed, one can concentrate on fine tuning the speed of hand/quilt movement to create a motif.

HOWEVER,  I only recommend this as a practice technique when a beginner quilter is really struggling to coordinate both hand and foot movements.  While ALL students struggle to coordinate hand and foot control, most achieve satisfactory results quickly and they don’t need to rely on the speed control.

Most quilting is accomplished with subtle changes in quilting speed.

Full Speed for Full Control

I recommend students of free motion quilting, learn to fully control the speed with their foot pedal.  The foot pedal is very sensitive and while it does take practice, it is better to learn to control the speed of quilting by using the foot pedal than by adjusting the speed control slider.  The foot pedal allows you much more flexibility as you quilt.

For example, when stitching a motif like the Baby Bunny scene above, you would  slow down for the small flowers and for the close echo stitching.  However, while stitching the big ovals, you could stitch faster.

By not creating an upper limit, you have greater control for subtle changes in speed.

NOTE-The Baby Bunny can be found in the Spring chapter, page 58  of MORE Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3.

Try the Speed Control

If your machine has a speed control.  Try stitching The Baby Bunny or other motif with the speed control in various limits.

Do YOU find it useful?

Do YOU prefer to not have a maximum limit?

If not, be sure to keep the slider all the way to the right for full control.

We’d LOVE to hear YOUR thoughts…

What makes quilting easier for YOU?

Please share YOUR machine quilting quick tips!

PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only.  Feel free to reblog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ.  For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com.  Thanks!

PPS…And don’t forget to take advantage of Bluprint’s two weeks FREE!

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19 responses to “Quilting Speed Control-A Machine Quilting Quick Tip”

  1. Lori
    I find when I try to control the speed with my slider my thread nests and breaks more. If I control the speed with my foot petal I don’t have this problem. Thanks for all of your invaluable tips and the encouragement to keep going even if I feel I am not doing everything perfectly.
    I admit that I was not a doodler until I started receiving your emails and bought your book. With your encouragement I now doodle every day and find that I rather enjoy the process. I know doodling has improved the look of my free motion quilting.
    Michelle

  2. I’m very comfortable with controlling speed by foot pedal, which I have done for many years. However, there were times when I’d be quilting for extended periods and would notice foot/calf fatigue or discomfort. I began to desire the option to set a max speed to mitigate the fatigue of holding my foot “just so,” and eventually replaced my Bernina Virtuosa 163 with the 440QE. The speed control, which I don’t use all the time, has certainly been a help when I need it.

  3. Thank you… this is such an interesting topic. Several years ago, I read a suggestion on your blog to learn to control the movements of my hands and foot rather than use a stitch regulator… I don’t have a stitch regulator on my machine, so this gave me a lot of hope that I could learn FMQ… and I’ve learned a lot. Today, I am encouraged to take it a step further, and move the stitch speed to the hare (away from the tortoise… I get a kick out of these symbols on my Juki!)… thank you for your generosity in sharing your thoughts, tips, and techniques.

    2. I also have a Juki and my manual says to have your speed all the way up. I have the dx7. I think…lol

  4. My only ” working ” machine currently is a mechanical Baby Lock. It is new and a pleasure . However no speed control or pressure adjustment for the presser foot ! “These are times that try quilter’s souls”…not to mention our whole human society on the planet. I just finished hand tying a 60 x 60 inch quilt with perle cotton instead of yarn. Was fun actually. Now I am going to embroider the 3 layers together to secure the border edge instead of an external binding. Hope that works. And as always, more prayer can’t hurt. The Bible says God loves it when we talk to Him.

  5. Hi Lori. Very timely post as I was FMQing yesterday and had an interesting observation. I’ve gotten better with the FMQ recently and I wanted to start increasing the speed but it seemed that my foot pedal wouldn’t budge. Oh no I thought. No is not the time to drop it off at the repair shop!!! If I careful timed the foot adjustment and position of the needle I could maybe get a little more speed and so I was very happy with the results.

    Your blog today jogged my memory. Two weeks ago I was monogramming a label and decided to use to the auto speed controller. Woah! I had to slow that sucker down. I totally forgot that I made that adjustment. Tonight I will continue my project and slowly increase the speed control setting to something in between. You saved me a trip to the store (which maybe closed btw) and a week or two in repair for something as easy as a push of a button! Life saver. Thanks!! Stay healthy everyone. V-

  6. I have not been quilting lately, but in folding a long thin strip 1/4″ under, I used my slow speed. I adjust speed a lot for different reasons. Love that I have it, but like one other commenter, I don’t have presser foot adjustment. 🙁

  7. My Janome 6500 has a slider that limits the maximum speed. I set it at medium just to have an upper level stop and then use pressure on the foot pedal to actually control the speed. Do some machines have a control so that the speed is always set to a certain speed? That sounds scary.

  8. The comment about using speed control to reduce fatigue reminded me of the value of attending to those “aches and pains” especially if one is sewing/quilting more. If I am not careful my left shoulder bothers me when quilting and I did change position which helped, but when I moved the table with machine even further, and then my chair too (so I could also watch the birds at the bird feeder) that really helped. Moral, keep moving and changing position BTY this solution is good for this intensive time, it wouldn’t work out for daily sewing, so that might be a suggestion too, keep flexibility in mind. I do enjoy your posts too.

  9. When I was learning, I turned the speed way down, because at that time, I was sewing too fast, and my stitches looked like little dots. Now, I have better control.

  10. I was in a hurry to finish a quilt for a safehouse. Our guild missed a meeting for snow, then the virus, and the shelter was running low. So I was sewing fast, making mistakes. Slowed my Bernina speed. Less mistakes AND the new rhythm heped my anxios heart. (Forgot my music too). So slow the machine and breath!!!

  11. I have tried top speed with slider but find my stitches are just too small with the intricacies of my quilting. If I was stippling or meandering, I might be able to do top speed. My machine does 1000 stitches instead of the 800 my older machine did so I think I just work better at a little slower speed. Also I find with ruler work. I am better with it a little slower. More time spent going a little slower just gives better results for me. But I have been only FMQ more than meander stipple for just less than a year. Your column gave me the courage to do more.

  12. When I was learning to FMQ, it was suggested that I use my “wrong” (left) foot on the foot pedal to get that disconnect between hand and foot. This worked well while learning and now I use my normal foot for all my speed control. I don’t like using the slide control and agree that you have more control by using the foot pedal. I’m loving your tutorials. Keep up the great work

  13. Totally agree with you. I prefer to control the stitch speed with my foot pedal. Gives me greater control.

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