Ruler foot for Berninas: A Tutorial

I shared my technique of combining the ruler toe from the Janome Convertible Free Motion Frame Quilting Foot Set with the Janome Convertible Free Motion Quilting Foot Set more than two years ago in this post on Quilting Tools. It was quickly followed up by my most popular post ever, Quilting with Rulers on a Domestic Sewing Machine. It's been such a great technique for achieving smooth lines and curves when free motion quilting. Since it involves Janome feet, Bernina owners (and other who can't use the Janome feet) have been so eager to find a way to use this foot or an equivalent foot.

Through my work with Top Anchor Quilting Tools, Betty Bland put me into contact with Reneah Rafferty, a Bernina Educator who has made the following tutorial to use the Janome foot on Berninas! Yay!

I know we've had a few creative souls who have tried to make it work before, and I admit wishing I had tried harder to figure it out before now, but I am a Janome girl, so I would not have figured out that the compatibility issue could be fixed with the computer settings.

Update: Looks like the new Bernina long arm machine will have interchangeable feet with the domestic Berninas, including the ruler foot. Though there may be some software updates needed to use the long arm's ruler foot on a regular Bernina or some creative settings adjustment, like Reneah has done below. I have no idea when the long arm's feet will be available for purchase, especially separately from the long arm. we just keep getting closer to having ruler feet for everybody!

Update to the Update: Since the thickness of any ruler foot can cause the top of the needle bar/clamp to hit the top of the ruler foot, ALWAYS put the foot in the lowered position before lowering the needle! This applies to all ruler feet and machines at this writing (8/4/15) and is the reason why Bernina is not recommending the use of their new ruler foot for the long arm to be used on the regular Bernina machines. In my opinion, this isn't a big issue as long as you can discipline yourself to lower the foot before lowering the needle.

She did this tute with her Bernina 880 and promises to check other machine going forward from here. Many thanks to Reneah and Bernina for this information.

(If you have a different brand of machine that still doesn't have a suitable foot for ruler work, don't despair. I have some information in the works for you too!)

So here's Reneah:

The following are the steps I needed to do to set my Bernina 880 for quilting ruler work.

Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

Accessories You will need

The following feet and accessories are needed.

Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

Bernina 77 foot Step 1:  Purchase the Bernina 77 foot which allows you to add another company’s shank and use that companies specialty feet.  Step 2:  For the Bernina 880, I will be using the below, Janome Convertible Free Motion Quilt Foot Set for HIGH SHANK.  This can be purchased at your local Janome Dealer.  The Janome Convertible Free Motion Shank I like because there is a spring to the right and screw that allows you adjust the height of the foot or the distance from the foot to the quilt.

Convertible Free Motion Quilt Foot Set (High Shank) Part # 202001003

Step 3:  Also, from a Janome Dealer you will need to purchase the Convertible Free Motion Frame Quilting Feet for 1600.  These optional feet can be used with the Convertible Free Motion Quilt Shank.  The ruler toe foot is a perfect height for the ¼” rulers.   It actually looks like a hopping foot that the long arm machines have.   With most domestic home sewing machines, the free motion foot is thin and you have to worry about the foot sliding under the ruler or template and possibly breaking a needle.  Per the instructions on the package attach the ¼ inch ruler foot to the Janome Convertible Free Motion Quilt Shank.

Convertible Free-Motion Frame Quilting Feet for 1600P Series  Part Number: 767434005

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Step 4:  Attach the Convertible Free Motion Quilt Shank to the Bernina 77 Adapter. 

Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

Step 5:   Attach the Bernina foot 77 to the machine. If your machine is in a cabinet, drop the machine down so it is flush within the cabinet or use the tray that came with the machine.

Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

Supreme Slider-When you are doing free motion quilting there is a lot of strain on your arms and shoulders to push and pull the quilt under the machine.  In order to help the quilt move easily, I use the Supreme Slider on the machine.  A Supreme Slider is made of 100% Teflon which is very slippery and allows the fabric move smoothly.  This is important for domestic sewing machines.  Place the white side up.

Setting up the Bernina 880 Machine

The following are the settings that I found that would work with my Bernina 880 machine.  Each machine may be slightly different, but this will give you starting point or a guide to start by.

1.      Select stitch number 1 in the Practical Stitches. 

All screen shots property of Bernina of America  Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

It will be necessary to trick the machine to think we have a different foot on the machine.  Press the foot icon on the left of the screen.  As shown in the next picture, it is 1C. 

3.      Select the, the darning which foot 9.

All screen shots property of Bernina of America  Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

4.      Close the window.

5.      If you would like, you can lower the feed dogs.  Personally, I leave them up but adjust the stitch length to zero.  The zero stitch length keeps the tension in tack but doesn’t allow the fabric to move.  Much like having the feed dogs down.    This will be an individual preference. 

 

All screen shots property of Bernina of America  Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

6.      The needle position will need to be moved over to the right so that the needle is in the center of the ruler foot.  Press the right arrow button on the machine for the needle position 5 times.  It will show as the below with the 9 foot.

7.      Presser foot pressure will need to be adjusted.  With the machine default settings, the foot will press on the fabric not allowing it to move freely.  This setting is one that will not be set in stone and is an individual setting depending on the thickness of the quilt and your machine.   I am working with muslin on the top and bottom with Warm and Natural batting.  Press the Pressure foot icon on the machine.  Press the “–“ sign until you reach at least a -20.  Depending on your project thickness, you may need to go to -25 and also adjust the screw on the Janome foot so that the foot just lightly touches the fabric.  On a scrap piece of quilt sandwich, test to make sure that the fabric moves freely under the foot when free motion quilting.  You don’t want the foot too high.  This will cause the fabric to flag and you may experience skip stitches.

All screen shots property of Bernina of America  Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

8.      The last setting that needs to be made to the machine is the deactivating the hover feature when the needle is in the down position.  Press the setup icon on the right toolbar.  

9.      Press the plus on the Sewing Settings icon.

10.  Press the plus on the Programming Function-button/Function icon.

11.  Press the plus for the Press Foot Position with Needle Stop Down icon.

12.  Press the first option that will not allow the foot to rise when you are not sewing and the needle is in the down position.  Remember we adjusted the pressure foot pressure in a previous step with the Janome foot shank adapter.  The foot will be raised slightly in this position.

All screen shots property of Bernina of America  Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

13.   Press the “X”.

You are now ready to do ruler work with your Bernina 880 as a sit down machine.    The templates I highly recommend and have had success with is Top Anchor Quilting Templates.  Their website is http://topanchorquilting.com/

All screen shots property of Bernina of America  Copyright Reneah D. Rafferty, Inc. 2014

Back to Amy:

There it is folks! I hope this helps you to set up a ruler foot for your machine. This may not work exactly the same across all models but should be fairly similar. Leave Reneah questions in the comments and I'll do my best to get her to answer them. She reads this blog, so she may answer directly.