Leah Day's Explore Walking Foot Quilting: Straight Lines

I have Leah Day's Book and I'm following along on her blog - this year we are learning quilting with a walking foot!  When I first started I tried a walking foot for the bindings, and it was really difficult for me to do.  (I think I broke the one that went with my Mom's Kenmore.)

My husband got me a new Brother (because it was rated as a great machine by Consumer Reports) as a surprise a few years ago and I have been now getting used to using it.  It's been great for piecing and has been fun to experiment with some of the extra stitches too.  But I hadn't put a walking foot on it until yesterday.

I pretty much followed the directions for Leah's making straight lines...  Except I didn't measure correctly so there are a few that are not the same distance between them...  Here is the front - where it's easy to see the stitches!

And here is the back!  I was amazed that the center line exactly had a line of stitching.  It wasn't planned but is very nice.

I had played around with the length of the stitches as she advised (but I didn't preserve mine so I can't show it to you).  I liked the 1.30 setting, but then I realized I had turned the machine off when I went downstairs and I forgot to change the setting again - most of this was just done with the default length so I think I will leave it at that!  Looking at the different stitches reminded me of when I rode a bike with different gears.  I really couldn't tell the difference between all the settings... Oh well.

So this foot went on easily.  I marked the first center line then tried to use the side of the presser foot to guide me for the remaining lines, but then decided to use a piece of tape and since my tape was 1 inch wide that is what most of the remaining distances are.  Then I experimented with the quilting guide that came with the Brother and that was great to use.  I could put it in so it was aligned with stitching on the right or the left.  Of course it would have been easier if I hadn't needed to readjust that with each change of direction, but it made it very easy.

I'm using the walking foot for quilting my project for the Put a Little Love in Your Heart Blog Hop that is coming up in about two weeks!  I wish I were done with my quilt so I could take a snazzy photo shoot this weekend, but oh well.  Going up to Pasadena with my son so we can have last sundae and hamburger at Twoheys in Alhambra. We will do other things too of course but I wanted him to remember Twoheys as I have been going there for many years.  Sad they are closing down, after 75 years they lost their lease.  : (

Thanks for coming by!