I was starting to stitch some more lines, this time curved ones, in the Twisted Clam grid using my Dynamic 6 D foot. Well, that did not work all that well for me, as it was difficult to see around the foot and my brain did not seem to want to cooperate with following the curves. Tried a few more times and stopped...bizarre, had no problem with the straight lines but could not, for the life of me, follow those gentle lines in a consistent manner. When looking at it, it was obvious that the foot itself obstructed my view, hence I could not really see what I was supposed to be following and just looking at it beforehand did not do the trick.
Yep, I have become a bit lazy and usually just whack on the Dynamic 6D foot and off I go...when in fact I should be having a look at what I am actually stitching and select the foot that would give me the best result. I have got a number of feet for the machine and in order to be able to see better, I used the newer Open Toe Freemotion Spring Foot. So, the shank came off, attached the foot, and set the mode to Spring foot freemotion. The tension for the thread I am using (Aurifil 50/2) remained more or less the same at 3.8
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| Open Toe Freemotion Spring Foot |
It's been a while, so was a bit rusty when starting to stitch with this foot as it behaves slightly different...the foot raises and lowers with each stitch in a much more noticeable manner than the 6D foot, but I soon got the hang of it.
Visibility was very good and I was able to follow the curves of the twisted clam much better because I could actually see the line next to the one I was stitching. As you can see there are a number of wonky lines in there, but I really think that does not matter...this is as good as it gets.
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| The texture created by the lines looks great |
When finished I switched back to the Dynamic 6D foot as I am continuing to fill in some areas with a bit of microstippling, but this time I used the modified ankle.
This is the Dynamic 6D foot with the 'normal' shank on
and here it is with the modified ankle attached
The improvement in visibility is obvious! Can't believe that I am not using this regularly.
What about you? Are you using all those useful little bits and pieces that you have for your machine?
Karin
As always Karin your posts are so informative quite apart from the inspirational work you do. I'd never heard of a modified ankle so must seek that out as visibility is so key. But like you I use my Dynamic 6 D far more than the open toed Spring foot for the same reason. I'm doing a large practice piece for my 6 month fmq course and will definitely switch over just to remind myself of the difference. And also research where I can get a modified ankle....
ReplyDelete(I've been an 'unaware no reply blogger' for a while! Wretched thing seems to magically reset my settings. However I have tried to change that but as I have zero faith in these things my email is thelilaccat@yahoo.com)
Karin, I love to see all the beautiful quilting you do on your Pfaff. I have the QE 4.0 and use the original clear square spring motion foot that came with it so I can see where I am going. I also have the modified ankle. My quilting improved quite a bit when I started using it. I have also had sucess with the Westalee ruler foot. It's nice to follow another Pfaff user.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brenda...I would be interested to hear about the Westalee foot. I have got it but am finding it a bit fiddly to use. Unfortunately you are a 'No Reply Blogger', so I can't email you...
DeleteHi. I have a performance 5.0 and was curious about the open toe spring foot. If the hopping gets too distracting, is there a way to alter the foot to stop it from jumping? email: thequiltyarn"at"karab"dot"co (not .com) thanks for such a great blog by the way :) Kara
ReplyDeleteNot sure I understand your email address...have you lowered your feed dogs? You could try to alter the pivot height to -1 and see whether that makes a difference.
Deletethequiltyarn@karab.co :) I don't have the foot yet but wanted the metal open toe one. I found I got distracted when using the plastic hopping foot. You mentioned that it took you a bit of time to adjust to it so I was hoping to be able to adjust something to stop it or minimise the hopping. I use the spring foot free motion setting on my machine so feed dogs are down. I'll check that setting with my plastic foot and see how it goes. Thanks for replying so quickly!
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