Why does my machine come with 3 different free motion quilting feet?

Yesterday on QUILTsocial we experimented with the cool dual-feed foot that comes with THE Dream Machine 2 from Brother. Today I’m looking at 3 different free motion quilting feet that come with the machine and the different types of machine quilting that can be done with each one.

3 different free motion feet

THE Dream Machine 2 comes with the following three types of free motion quilting feet. From left to right: open toe free motion foot “O”, free motion quilting foot “C” and the echo quilting free motion foot “E”.

Each can be used for straight line free motion quilting, but each work best for certain types of machine quilting.

Before we use ANY of these feet for free motion quilting, we have to drop the feed dogs. This is SO EASY to do on this machine – just press the free motion quilting button on the sewing screen.

The machine automatically senses the thickness of the fabrics being sewn, but it can also be adjusted it manually if desired by going to the settings screens of THE Brother Dream Machine 2.

Free motion quilting foot “C”

Before using the free motion quilting foot “C”, it’s necessary to switch the regular needle plate for the straight stitch needle plate that comes with the machine. You can see from the picture that this needle plate only has a round hole for the needle to pass through.

When the free motion quilting button is pressed, the machine senses that you’ve switched needle plates and indicates to attach the “C” foot. Stitch Q-01 is used for quilting with the free motion foot “C”.

Since the free motion quilting foot “C” is so tiny, it’s great for micro-stippling! It can also be used for any other design that you want to quilt using a STRAIGHT stitch.

When I first started doing the stippling I was having trouble with skipped stitches. I switched threads, but the problem persisted. So I checked out the troubleshooting menu to see what it said about skipped stitches. I changed the needle and problem solved!!

Free motion open toe quilting foot “O”

The open toe foot is the one foot with which I’m most familiar. A straight stitching line can be done like the meandering below or using more decorative stitches. First, though, the regular needle plate needs to be switched back.

The open toe free-motion foot for THE Dream Machine 2 allows for using decorative stitches, such as the zigzag stitch, for free motion quilting. This would also be the foot to use for thread painting.

Free motion echo quilting foot “E”

To attach the free motion echo quilting foot “E” to THE Dream Machine 2, it’s important to first attach the shank adapter and then attach the foot to the adapter. The little multi-purpose screwdriver that comes with the machine is very handy for this! When I switch back to the regular sewing feet, I’m going to keep the adapter attached to the “E” foot to eliminate one step (and keep from losing the adapter).

The lines on the plastic of THE Dream Machine 2’s echo quilting foot allows spacing the quilting lines evenly.

I don’t usually use echo quilting on my projects as it’s fairly difficult to do with my Gammill. But I quite like the way it looks and with a little practice, maybe I’ll do some echo quilting on one of my future projects.

It’s been so much fun discovering all of the cool features of THE Dream Machine 2 this week. My kids were right – I don’t want to pass it on to Jean Boyd, BUT at least I know that after she’s used it for the next three months I get it back to play some more! I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s posts.

Next week I’ll be blogging again, but I’ll be using my NQ900 to sew up a project using one of Northcott’s new lines of fabric. See you next week!