I Have a New Foot

When I first started to quilt, I thought that stitching in the ditch was a beginner's stitch, and therefore easy.  It must be, I reasoned, since all the books recommended that you start your quilting process with this technique, in order to stabilize your layers.

I've never been very good at stitching in the ditch, and over the years I just abandoned it.  That is, until one of my fellow quilt guild members told us about a stitch-in-the-ditch foot.

Excited to finally have the perfect helper, I bought one.  It looked foolproof, with that knife-sharp guide riding in the ditch.  Off I went, merrily sewing along on my quilt rug.

When I checked my work, this is what I found.  Not in the ditch at all.  

After grumbling to myself about the foot, I applied a little logic to the problem.  It looked like my needle wasn't centered behind that "prow" thing sticking out on the front of the foot.  Hoping for a way to control the needle position, I consulted the manual.  Sure enough, my old machine does have the ability to move the needle.  Now that I think about it, I barely remember reading about it years ago, but I was certain I had never adjusted my needle position, at least not intentionally. 

Here's where the problem was:  I have a slider bar that has a dual function, depending on what type of stitch you're doing.  I didn't know that.  When you're in stitch type 1 (straight stitch) and move the slider bar, you control the variable needle position.  When you're in stitch type 3 (zigzag), the very same slider bar controls the width of the zigzag.  So some time in the past, I screwed things up without realizing it.  This would also explain why my 1/4" seams weren't very accurate.

Lesson learned.

I put the needle back where it was supposed to be and tried again.  Although it looks pretty good right here in this section - look at the seam between the orange and black - I found that this new foot certainly wasn't foolproof.  There are other spots where my stitching climbed out of the ditch, then went back in for awhile, then climbed out, etc.; you get the picture. 

That was disappointing.  At this time I must attribute it to operator error.  A few days later I tried to stitch in the ditch without my new foot, just going nice and slow, and I had good results.  Not perfect,  but good, and better than when using the foot.  I think the trick is you have to watch where your needle is coming down, not a spot in front of it like when you keep your eyes on the guide.

For all the effort it takes, I think I'm just going to go back to top-stitching along a seam line, unless it's a piece where I'm doing free-motion quilting.

The other thing I tried new was tying off the beginning threads by pulling the top thread to the back.  It made a nice invisible finish on the top.  Just leave a long tail when you start sewing so you have enough to thread through a needle.

Then pull it through to the back and make a double knot.

I'm not sure how often in the future I'll do either of these techniques, but it was a fun learning experience.