4 handy tips for successful quilting with a dual feed foot

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I used THE Dream Machine 2 from Brother to work on piecing my Starstruck quilt sample using the new Banyan Batiks from Northcott. The sample is turning out great and the machine is a breeze to sew with!

Today I’m going to try out the dual feed foot that comes with the machine as I’ve NEVER seen anything quite like it!

The dual feed foot

This is what the dual feed foot on THE Dream Machine 2 looks like. As you can see from the picture, this is NOT your grandma’s walking foot!!

The first thing you’ll notice right off the bat is the size – just like the machine, this foot is huge!

The second thing you’ll notice is that you attach it to the shank AND it plugs into the back of the machine.

The third thing that makes this different from a walking foot is that it has a rubber rolling belt that grabs the fabric and moves it though from the top as the feet dogs move the fabric from the bottom.

Here’s the dual feed foot attached to the machine.

I assembled some of the scraps leftover from the Starstruck quilt and sewn them together to make a panel approximately 13″ x 18″ for a planner cover.

I added some borders to the leftover block and then used some of the leftover squares to make two long borders. The pieced panel is then ironed to HEATNBOND Non-Woven Craft Weight Fusible Interfacing. Now I’m ready to try out the dual feed foot on THE Dream Machine 2.

TIP 1 If you have a laser guideline marker use it

I set the stitch to a straight stitch and started quilting the pieced panel to the interfacing. I wanted to stitch a diagonal line through the squares and decided to try using the laser guide along with the dual feed foot. It worked wonders! Way better than when I just “eyeball it”.

TIPS 2 and 3 Use your needle down and presser lifting button

Other handy features to use with the dual feed foot are the needle down function and the presser foot lifting button. When turning a corner with the dual feed foot, stop sewing, let the needle stop in the quilt, touch the presser foot lifting button and then spin the quilt to line up the next quilting line.

Not all of the machine’s stitches can be used with the dual feed foot. On each of the stitch selection pages, the highlighted buttons are the ones that are compatible with THE Dream Machine 2’s dual feed foot.

If you happen to select a stitch that won’t work with the dual feed foot, this pop-up screen will appear. I love the emoji, do you?

Tip 4 Decorative stitches can be used for quilting

I found a lovely decorative stitch to try with the dual feed foot, and used it to stitch down the center of the borders around the block. I used a variegated blue WonderFil Fabulux thread to do all of the quilting on the piece.

I’m going to use this quilted panel to make a planner cover following the same directions that I used for the book cover that I made in my September 2014 QUILTsocial posts, I know… that long ago!

The dual feed foot for THE Dream Machine 2 is so awesome! I just loved using it to quilt this planner cover. Tomorrow I’m going to try out the different free motion feet that come with the machine and we’ll discuss the different uses for each of them. See you tomorrow.