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Quilting Research: walking foot quilting designs

  • May 17, 2021
  • 6 min read

Hello Friends and Welcome!


You may remember about a month ago, I released a few posts about quilt basting, featuring a quilt called Simply Woven. Check out my basting research and basting demo posts if you're interested in more information. In all the time that has passed, I've been so busy working on other projects that there hasn't been much time to get on with the quilting.


With the Wetlands BoM coming to an end, I expect I'll soon have more time on my hands and will be able to start! To prepare, I've been looking into some common quilting designs, specifically walking foot designs. Read on to learn more!



What is a Walking Foot?


A walking foot, also known as an even feed foot is a machine foot that feeds the fabric from above the same way the feed dogs do from below. This foot is intended to be used in tandem with the feed dogs to feed many or very bulky layers through the machine, making it a great attachment to use for quilting!

The foot on the right is my standard straight stitch foot, and the one on the left is my walking foot. As you can see, the walking foot is much larger, which means it covers more of the quilt and is not very good for detail work.


The red arrow in the picture is pointing to a bar that hooks around the needle clamp (the screw that holds the needle in place), as the needle moves up and down, it drives the walking motion of the foot. Jennifer Wiese of Workroom Social does a really great job showing off walking foot installation in this Howcast video.


Because a walking foot is designed for forward movement, it works best using a straight stitch to sew lines and gentle curves. Using decorative stitches, such as embroidery stitches is not recommended since they go against the natural movement of the foot and can wear it out quickly.


If you plan to buy a walking foot attachment for yourself, you'll need to know if your machine is high or low shank. This information can be found in the machine manual or on the manufacturer's website using the machine's model number. My machine, the Singer 4411 heavy duty, is low shank.



Walking Foot Quilting Designs


Despite being limited to forward movement, there are a wide variety of quilting designs that can be made using the walking foot. These designs commonly feature straight lines, gentle curves, or some combination of the two.


You can also quilt geometric shapes with a walking foot. To turn a corner, set the needle in the downward position, lift the foot, rotate the quilt, then lower the foot and resume quilting. This is more challenging with a larger quilt, but is definitely still possible!


A few things the walking foot does not do well are tight curves and complicated designs. It's very difficult to manoeuvre the walking foot around tight curves since it's designed for forward movement, and the bulk of the foot makes it difficult to see the marks for complicated and detailed motifs. Generally, these types of quilting designs are created using free motion, long arm machines, or hand quilting.


With all of that in mind, let's explore a few common quilting designs used by walking foot quilters! I'll be using the Cedars of Lebanon quilt block as a sample, the quilting lines are shown in dark grey to contrast the colours of the piecing, but you could quilt the block in any colour.


Stitch in the Ditch

Stitch in the ditch is an easy and subtle quilting design that follows the shape of the piecing. The 'ditch' in the name refers to the space between two pieces where the seam is located. Just as the name implies, stitching in the ditch involves quilting along the seams of the pieced quilt top.

Depending on the look you're aiming for, you could quilt every seam, or just specific seams you want to emphasize.


This is a great quilting design for beginners since all of the quilting is hidden, and skipped or uneven stitches are harder to see. It also doesn't require any additional marking since you're following the lines that exist in the quilt top.


Outline Quilting

This is another design that follows the shape of the piecing, but instead of quilting directly on the seam line, it is done slightly inside or outside of the pieced lines. Commonly, outline quilting is done ¼" away from the seam line.

In this sample, I've chosen to outline all pieces except the small triangles. Outlining is another very subtle design that's easy for beginners, and can be combined with stitch in the ditch to bring a lot of emphasis to particular pieces of the quilt.


Channel Quilting

Also known as straight line quilting, channel quilting uses a series of long, straight, evenly spaced lines to cover the whole surface of the quilt. These lines can run in any direction; vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, and, as an all over design, channel quilting doesn't rely on the shape of the underlying piecing.

Channel quilting can have a variety of different names depending on the spacing between the lines. For example, if the lines are quilted very densely, about ⅛" apart, the design is commonly called matchstick quilting.

Pinstripe quilting is a variation of channel quilting that involves quilting a pair of lines close together, but with a larger space between each pair. It creates some additional visual interest in a very simple quilting design.


Crosshatch Quilting

Crosshatch is similar to channel quilting because both use evenly spaced lines, however crosshatch uses two sets of these lines travelling across each other in different directions.

This example uses the classic checker board crosshatch design, combining vertical and horizontal lines.

This design uses opposite diagonal lines to create the diamond crosshatch.


But crosshatch isn't limited to just these designs, you could layer lines that go in three or more directions, use lines set on a variety of different angles, or incorporate some pinstripes!


Gentle Improv Curves

There are many different ways to quilt curved line designs, but improv curves are the easiest. Sew a series of organic, wavy lines across the quilt, don't worry about marking the quilt or making them all the same, having variety will add visual interest to the finished quilt!

Overlapping lines like these are great for creating a lot of texture! And the interactions between the lines creates a variety of interesting shapes and layers that will be totally unique every time.

If you want to try improv curved quilting, but don't like the density of the overlapping design, you could leave space between each line of quilting. This is a really easy and fast way to quilt a project!


Clamshells

Clamshell quilting uses rows of scalloped stitching to create an all over pattern.

If you like the look of curved quilting but crave a little more organization than improv can provide, this might be the design for you! Large clamshells will work really well with a walking foot, but the smaller they get, the harder they will be to quilt accurately.


Note that because this design features a repeating pattern, it's a good idea to mark the clamshell shape before you begin quilting.


Echo Quilting

Echo quilting, also known as echoing, is similar to outline quilting, but where outline quilting imitates the shape of the piecing, echoing imitates the shape of other quilting lines. Start by quilting a shape or line, once you've completed the firs line, move your foot however far away your want your echos to be spaced and quilt another of the same shape.

In the example above, I’ve used stitch in the ditch to highlight the central shape in the block and echoed that line until reaching the edge of the block.

You could also choose to use a shape that isn’t featured in the block to create contrast between the piecing and quilting. Another really interesting feature of the quilting in this sample is that the echoes overlap each other rather than changing direction as they did in the previous example.


Combination Designs

You can also create a lot of really interesting and unique quilting designs by combining a variety of the ones mentioned above.

This example uses stitch in the ditch, outline, and crosshatch to emphasize different parts of the block.



I'm sure there are a lot more walking foot quilting designs than what I've listed here. If you have a favourite that I missed, let me know in the comments!


As usual, I've listed my sources at the end of this post, along with links so you can check them out for yourselves. I'm going to be continuing my walking foot research over the next few weeks and look forward to sharing what I learn with all of you!


Until Next Time Friends, Happy Quilting!

VA


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