Friday 20 July 2012

For the Pfaff Enthusiast

Bought two new sewing feet. Unfortunately the workshop I was booked in at my sewing shop for August was cancelled recently but as I had already paid I had store credit....great! I have been researching FMQ feet for my sewing machine (Pfaff Quilt Expression 4) ever since I saw the Sensormatic Open Toe foot over at Pat's at Colour Me Quilty.  I did not even know this was available and had not been using the Sensormatic function of the machine at all (as it came with a closed Sensormatic foot).

So, purchased that one and tested it out on my 'practice quilt'.

 Open Toe Sensormatic Freemotion Foot




That worked alright, however I am not used to this foot at all. I had some problems with changing direction, in that I seemed to hover on the spot for a moment. This does not usually happen with my Sringloaded foot and may be just an issue around not being used to this set up at all. Also had some issues with stopping and starting. The foot seems to hold the fabric in place and I cannot move it slightly forward, so always ended up with a stitch on the spot when taking off again.

On the positive side the visibility was really good and I did some stippling with it as well and found it really good for that as you can 'hover' across the surface at higher speed. This works really well.

May need more practice on this one, as it behaves quite different compared to the Springloaded foot.

Well, and then I bought this little contraption:

Freemotion Echo Quilting Foot

...an echo quilting foot (used with Sensormatic function). Now this is truly amazing. As you can see the visibility is great and you have two circle markings, one at 1/4 inch and the other one at 3/8 inch. In order to attach this, the shank needs to be removed (did not even know you could do that) and this gets attached with a little screw.

Had some fun with this




This would have been very handy for the Wonky block quilt to stitch the double lines of the Zentangle design across the quilt.

I really like this foot as I could clearly see the lines that I was following via the markings - the visibility is really good as it allows you to see all of the surrounding area. Also tried it out on the Circuit Board design - very useful in keeping your distances approximately the same (which then hopefully detracts from the wonky stitching).

Very impressed with my purchases.

Until next time

Karin

5 comments:

  1. Interesting! I haven't noticed the issue you were having with the open toe foot. I still have lots to learn about it. I never would have thought I would like the echo foot, but now I want to try that one. Thanks for sharing! :)

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  2. Yes, I highly recommend this foot. I had looked at it before and was not quite convinced. However, after doing those double lines of the Wonky block quilt (which I could only do by turning and twisting the quilt) , I thought there had to be a better way. Ideally, I would have liked one of those round feet for the machine that most people have, but obviously am limited to what Pfaff puts out for these machines. This foot produces beautiful even lines. The Open Toe foot probably needs more practice. Had my machine for close to 2 years and have not really played with this that much.

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    Replies
    1. Karin, thank you for pointing me in the direction of the photo of your "practice" quilt. It is so pretty. I also was intrigued about the Sensormatic foot. I thought, wow, I need one of those! And when I saw the photo of it, I realized that my Janome Horizon has one!! I didn't know what it was for, but now it makes perfect sense. I don't know if the machine has a special function for it, but, when in doubt, read the manual!

      Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Hi Karin, I'm really impressed with what you did with the echo foot. I have one on my Janome (at least it looks the same in the photo), but couldn't get good results. Can you tell me what Pfaff's 'Sensormatic' function is? Just curious. Haven't visited your blog before, I came over from Leah's blog -- glad that you asked a question!
    Pam

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  4. Hi Pam. The Sensormatic Freemotion quilting function uses the little foot in the picture above which just clips on. The Open toe foot behaves quite differently from the Springloaded foot. When going slow the foot will raise and lower with each stitch to hold the fabric in place while the stitch is being formed. However when at high speed it floats over the surface while sewing - this is particularly useful for some of the 'faster designs' like stippling. It does tend to give a somewhat more consistent stitch with some of those designs. The echo foot behaves the same and, I am not sure why this is, moves even smoother - mind you I am still getting used to both feet, so that could well be my imagination. However, I was impressed with the echo quilting results. I do not usually get my lines that straight.

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