Now that the weather is getting nicer, I wanted some placemats for when we eat outside. I think I actually picked up these two fat quarters a while ago, but I liked the look of them because they reminded me of picnic table tablecloths. My intention even then though was to use them to practice my quilting.
After trying out free motion quilting and failing deciding it wasn’t for me, I decided to go with simple straight stitching since the fabric gives me guides.
I ended up doing one using a normal presser foot on my Husqvarna and one using a walking foot on my Singer. I bought the walking foot for my Singer because I didn’t have one before (gasp — I know!) and buying one for my Singer was about 1/3 the price as for the Husqvarna. I got it at Sewing Parts Online in case you’re looking for one. I knew they would carry parts for a slant shank which is what I have.
A walking foot is pretty awesome. I don’t think I ever used one before, but it really made everything so simple. I didn’t have to keep pulling everything taught. It just flowed through!
In the photo above, the placemat on the left was done with the walking foot and the one on the right was done with a normal foot. You can see the one of the right has slightly more distortion (the check pattern really shows it off) due to the pulling of the fabric since I switched directions with each stitch.
A slightly closer up shot. Again, walking foot on the left and regular presser foot on the right. Basically a walking foot is totally cool, I can’t believe I didn’t have one before and I’m looking forward to using it for my neon quilt.
I have two walking feet. They get me where I want to go.