Free Motion Ruler Work on Pfaff, Babylock Ellisimo, and Brother Quattro

Back in late October, reader Becki sent me an email letting me know she had taken a free motion quilting class from Patsy Thompson and Patsy had recommended my blog and videos to the class. After letting out a squeal of glee, I emailed Patsy to thank her and it has sparked an email correspondence that has been so encouraging to me.


She and I both are looking for ways for more quilters to do free motion ruler work. She has access to more machines than I do and after some back and forth discussion about the 3rd party ruler feet that have lately come onto the market claiming to fit nearly all sewing machines, she decided to try the Janome Ruler Foot on some of the machines we hadn't tried yet.

Patsy has just done a very clear and fabulous video on her blog showing how she's made this Janome foot work on several Pfaffs, Babylock Ellisimo, and the Brother Quattro. So go check it out! If you don't have any of these machines, it will still give you some ideas to see if you want to experiment with your machine.

Here's an excerpt from one of our emails (used with Patsy's permission):

Just wanted to report in about the convertible foot w/ruler toe on Pfaffs.  I have tried this combo on 5 models of Pfaffs so far:
2034; 2040; 2042; 2044; and 2046
 The combo worked great on all of them.  One thing that really surprised me was that the space from the base of the ruler toe to the machine bed seemed really high (this was after I'd adjusted the toe to its lowest possible position) but it worked like a charm on all 5 machines.  in fact, I find it easier to do ruler work on those Pfaffs than my Babylock Ellisimo/Brother Quattro even though the latter 2 have much larger harp spaces.  It is interesting to me that virtually every machine I have done ruler work on has its own unique area that is more difficult/impossible to position the template.  (emphasis added is mine)
I have a Q & A post coming up for you on a new 3rd party ruler foot maker  next week. But in the meantime, we're getting closer and closer to getting everybody into free motion quilting with rulers and templates.

I am sick--again. So I am so glad to share Patsy's post with you and go back to bed! I think I'm going to start spraying the kids down with Lysol before they come in from school. At least this time no one's stomach was involved.

11 comments:

  1. Amy, that's really cool! I watched Patsy when I was first learning FMQ. These types of techniques are the reasons I follow you! Thanks!!!

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  2. Thanks for mentioning me! I've bought my ruler feet, but have yet to have a chance to try them out. Hope you feel better soon.

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    1. Becki, I am so thankful that you opened the door for me to get to know Patsy!

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  3. Amy,
    Have you seen the feet sold by Finishing Touches? I had one for my brother when I had it on a frame. I don't see why it wouldn't work on a table.

    http://www.finishingtouchesquiltingstudio.com/apps/webstore/products/category/768624?page=1

    Norma

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    1. Yes, I have and I’ve mentioned them here before. The main one they have for domestic machines is a modified Juki foot. The interesting thing that I’m recently finding (as is Patsy) is that feet are promoted for certain machines, but will actually fit on many different machines if one is willing to try it and do some adjusting. The main thing is to choose a high or low shank foot. Thanks for bringing them up again, though!

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  4. Thanks so much for introducing me to Patsy and her blog. I appreciate your generosity of spirit and have learned so much from following your blog and watching your tutorials. I am eager to learn to do ruler work but have been a little hesitant to order a foot because of the price and because there was not a ruler foot made specifically for my Brother machine. This video gives me courage to save my $$ and try it out! I hope you are feeling better quickly!

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  5. :( Sorry to hear you are sick again....I home schooled our daughter for years and went through the same thing when she started attending public school again. Hang in there, next year will be easier!

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  6. I made a comment but not sure if it got through. I am very intrigued with the ruler work. I just got a Brother 1500S a few months ago and have been getting the sewing area set up to work. Will these Janome feet work with my machine? What do I need to purchase if they do work? Thanks for all the help and the great work you do. It is very inspiring to a new (old) quilter!

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    1. Kathy- I can't say for certain as I do not have experience with the Brother 1500, but I believe it will take the Janome Convertible Free Motion Foot set for the Janome 1600P (Part # 767433004). Then of course you can use the ruler toe from Janome. But that foot is packaged with the needle plate for the 1600 so it might be more expensive. It is also possible that one of the feet sold by Finishing Touches (see comment above) may fit it.

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  7. Well, I have struck out today but won't give up! I tried a large mail order Janome dealer and they were out of stock and had no clue what I was referring to. I also I tried the finishing touches site and the foot is $70 which I can understand due to it being hand crafted. However, the $20 postage was just a bit much! So, I guess I will just work on my regular FMQ and learn the in's and out's of the Brother PQ1500S for a while! I don't think I am in danger of becoming an expert any time soon!! :)

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    1. CORRECTION: It was a glitch on PayPal and shipping is $5.50! Much more reasonable! However, $75.50 is still a bit above my current price range. Add in the ruler and it would be a pretty expensive experiment!

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