Best Foot forward?

Polly, I would happily be the Foot Fetish Queen if I was smart enough.

That said, I can only think of one other foot that might have worked better. It's for couching beads. I had never seen one until I inherited the Pfaff. My friend had every foot you can imagine. Some I have no idea what they are for or how they work. But the couching foot is amazing. I have tested it a bit. It has a little rise in the bottom of the foot, just about big enough to accommodate a little string of beads. And you just sew along in a zigzag stitch and the foot keeps the needle up off the beads and doesn't catch on the beads. I can't remember what kind of machine you have, but I'm betting that most of the machine companies have a beading foot.

As for the curve foot, I bought one a couple years ago and don't like it. I found it squished too much. I only use it if I'm really sewing a circle or half circle, not for just little curvy things.

I am in awe of what you did, with or without a special foot. Wowsers, if I ever need a long bit of vine stitched on, maybe I'll send it to you.

Sunny

Well. Actually. I don't have a curves foot but I'm thinking it wouldn't have worked anyway. The vines continually go in an 'S' shape so they don't consistently curve in just one direction. (I'm showing you with my hands if you didn't follow that. In the alternative you can just look at the S on the keyboard.) Thank you for your congratulations, I'm rather surprised myself. Polly

Send your vines to me, Sunny. I'll be glad to stitch them. Hope you don't mind that they're done in what aurifil calls 'tulip'. Kind of a loud yellow but the price was good. Polly

Sunny -- check this out --

most sources seem to say open toe foot for something like this

Anne

Wow!! That is a lot of vines. Don't have any advise, but way to go Polly.

What I've done is to machine sew it with a normal running stitch, 'wrong side' down, a very scant .25" from raw edge, then flip the bias vine over to cover the raw edge. Then I have only one edge to finish. I can't remember what foot I used, but I know I did an invisible stitch on that edge. Clear as a rock? PAT in VA/USA

AAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Do NOT show this site to my SIL!!!!!! It has a BEADING FOOT.. she'd kill me....and put me out to dry after!

I sent her DD's Christmas Tree WUH to glue the beads onto, per her request. I know she'll enjoy doing it...but if she would have known about this when she was here.....................

Butterfly (and I bought almost ALL the feet when I got my machine and a couple more since...how'd I miss that one?)

I use the open toe foot for bias strips. I've also found that securing the strip with a long basting stitch- by hand- is much better than pinning and really doesn't take much more time. You get poked less often and the foot will glide right over the basting. It's easy to remove if you start and stop on the right side of the project- just tug the thread ends and it's gone. I also 'stretch' one side of the bias strip to pre-form the curves- they'll lay nicer without little pleats.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

That's how I did it, Pat, and it did go very well. What foot do you use for the invisible stitch? Did you find one easier than the plain old open toe? Polly

Polly, I love pressure feet and have bunches of different ones. I would probably use the open toe foot too. That seems to be my foot of choice for a lot of things lately. It partly depends on the vine. If you wanted it all the same width, I would have not bothered with sewing a certain distance from the cut edge, but rather a consistent distance from the folded edge. So I would set up my machine with the needle the appropriate distance from the edge of the foot, then let the folded edge of the bias run along the edge of the foot. IF you want a vine that varies in width quite a bit, then cutting and sewing from the cut edge is better.

Sounds interesting.

Pati, > I just stitched 419" of bias vines on a quilt top. It went really well and

Sunny, I have several different sized beading feet. They make them to accommodate different sizes of beads. Also have a couple of different feet to use for couching flat braids or trims. And a foot for attaching ribbons, including several different width ribbons stacked on top of each other. These all make sewing certain things a lot easier indeed.

Pati, > Polly, I would happily be the Foot Fetish Queen if I was smart enough. >

forgot.... BTW the "CurveMaster" foot is for sewing curved seams, not for sewing curved stuff on top of a quilt. It is a lot of money for something that is not that difficult to do without it. (While I love useful gadgets, I would rather not spend $$ on something that isn't that useful. YMMV, but I have heard of many people who don't feel that the foot is worth the money. Of course I have also heard of people who love it. So please, no flames.... )

Pati, > Polly, I would happily be the Foot Fetish Queen if I was smart enough. >

I have no advice at all for you, Polly, but my mouth is hanging open in shock at the idea of doing 419" of vines! Wow! Congratulations on not going crazy! ;)

I had to go look at the thing and was a bit bemused myself. They start right off assuming everybody sews curves the hard way all the time instead of only when they have too. Maybe it might be an investment for somebody who does scrappy all the time, or a lot of blocks like New York Beauty, but as often as I do scrappy curves a paper of pins makes better sense.

I would have had a try with the teflon foot for Polly's vines. The very one she used (the open toe) would have been my second choice.

NightMist

Polly: The last time I did that was several years ago, and I think my brain 'deleted that file' because I just can't remember. I do tend to like the very wide open toe, rather than one with a bar or even clear plastic area. When doing a vine like this, the curves are allowed to move across the space in an unstructured way. I figure that real vines and other plants do not have a rigid pattern.

PAT

me too, the regular foot on my current machine is definitely not designed for quilters, the bed of the machine has quarter inch marks for centre and right needle positions, but the regular foot has the slit at the left - but I never use the left needle position. I either use my quarter inch foot or the open toe foot, I'm sure there are lots of sewing things that the open toe wouldn't work for, but I haven't found one in quilting yet.

Anne

Well, you see, Sandy . . . when you're already crazy, that's just not a problem. Polly

"Sandy" I have no advice at all for you, Polly, but my mouth is hanging open in