What foot can I use?
 

After sewing all the layers together by stitching in the ditch, can I use a regular pressure foot to add embroidery/fancy stitches? Do I always have to use a walking foot? Can the walking foot be used for these fancier stitches? Thanks.

The walking foot is really only good for straight line or very gently wavy lines. I would suggest that if you are planning on putting embroidery on a quilt, you might want to do it before you sandwich. The embroidery will 'take up' fabric and you run the risk of puckering if you embroider after. Hope this helps and makes sense.
To answer the question of which foot, probably an applique foot or if you have an embroidery machine, mine uses an embroidery foot which kind of looks like a hopping, or darning foot, like you would use in free motion. Check your manuel for the best foot for a particular stitch.

For fancy stitches I would stick with the walking foot. It makes the quilt move more evenly and should have a wide opening to accommodate the wider stitches. I also use the walking foot to machine sew the binding to the front of the quilt and then I sew by hand to back, or you could use the walking foot to completely machine stitch your binding. It works much better than a regular foot when you have several layers.

Recently I asked a member a similar question, here is the link to the photo she posted & if you scroll down to post #15 she answers with what works for her. When I try it with my Sapphire 870 it doesn't feed through nicely. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...ml#post6833136

It all depends on your machine & walking foot. Some will accommodate fancy stitches, some will only go forward and not even work just sewing backwards, and doing so can actually break the foot. You need to do a bit of research on your specific foot/machine setup. You can try a regular presser foot on a scrap sandwich, but I'm guessing that it's not going to feed thru evenly (feed dogs will grab bottom & top won't move much). Heavy, filled embroidery designs should probably be done on the top before sandwiching, but an open machine embroidery (where you hoop the item) can be done on a quilt sandwich.

I agree check your manual before you try decorative with your walking foot they are meant for straight quilting

Just to give you a wisea** answer...either your left or right foot! ;) Sorry, couldn't resist.

Thank you.

If I'm doing fancy stitches on a quilt sandwich of whatever size, I use my walking foot, and have never had any kind of problem.