Hello Ladies, need some advice again; I am pretty new to quilting and therefore tried some straight line quilting on my pieced top. I have pinned everything very good, but still the fabric started shifting a little, but so much that the patchwork i did got wonky ( and i matched the seams up perfectly while sewing, but now it looks terrible) what do i do to prevent this? I did quilt one row down and one row up and so on but the pieced rows still look wavy and wonky

Did you start quilting in the middle and work your way out? Did you spray baste batting to the backing to hold it in place and then pin? I just quilted a 20 x 20 table topper and mine didn't shift.

no i started at the top, maybe i should start from the middle, i don't have basting spray, not sure if i can get that here either...will have to look online for it. I just pinned it

I think the biggest thing you could do to improve that is to get a walking foot. They are pricey, but they hop over your top rather than push it in front of them as ordinary feet do. That eliminates a whole lot of wrinkles etc.

If you don't have a walking foot, try reducing the presser foot tension.

I don't always use the spray basting and mine do great with pinning. Are you pinning every 2 or 3 inches. You really need the walking foot. It makes a huge difference. You also probably need to change the length on your machine. Every machine is different. I put mine on 3.0 or 3.5. Do some test pieces to see which stitch length you like. You don't want them real tight like normal sewing. And go slow. I used to think because it is a straight line I can just take off. Not so. When I take my time my stitches are much prettier.

It sounds to me that you need to look at your presser foot settings which is so important but difficult to get right until you get the hang of it. Here is a Youtube video that may help you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox8qRhWF3CI also an article http://www.westsidesewing.com/wss/tips/art_pt08.pdf

The other tip I would give you is that a lot of quilters recommend a walking foot for quilting, which works but are quite expensive I don't use one for other reasons, I don't like the noise and not being able to see where I am going clearly so I use the tip by Nancy Johnson-Srebro and use a wide toed see thro' plastic SATIN foot, works like a dream and is normally supplied with your machine, if not they are cheap enought to buy.

BTW I normally do my first stitch line straight down the middle, top to bottom, of the quilt, check there are not wrinkles etc; and then turn the quilt around and do a line side to side. Then quilt a quarter at a time.

Thanks for the suggestions as I'm going to try this too!!

A walking foot is a must, but don't go down one row and up the next, go either down or up each of them in the same direction, otherwise it will distort.

Great topic! I am just finishing a quilt with straight line quilting. It has turned out fine, but there are a few places where I'm not happy. I think it will be fine once it's washed. I used my satin foot as someone has mentioned and increased my stitch length to 4. I also kept my machine at the slowest speed. I have a walking foot but I haven't used it yet. I'm going to get it out and practice with it before I do my next one! lol