Other posts on this project: Rainbow Quilt Pt. 1, Rainbow Quilt Pt. 2, Rainbow Quilt Pt. 3, The Quilt Is Pinned and My Fabric Came.

So I realized (after talking to my mom about it) that I’m just not ready to do a meandering, free-motion quilting design on this quilt. It’s too big and I have too little practice on my little Janome. So my mom and I came to the conclusion that a simple grid would be a good way to practice quilting something this big without having to wrestle it around turns for a design. This is a great idea, and we were excited that I can use the guide on my walking foot to space the lines, rather than have to draw them on the quilt.

Only one problem.

See how the guide is on the right side of the walking foot? This means I have to work right to left to have a line of stitches to follow. THAT means that instead of being able to work left to right and unroll the quilt as I work from the center out I have to roll up the quilt more and wedge it through my machine. There’s just no way that’s going to work. What I have rolled up now to sew down the center of the quilt is about the limit of what I can push through the machine without making a big mess of the project.

So now Adam and I are trying to figure out some way to engineer a guide on the left side of the walking foot so I can go in the direction I want to. Switching the guide to the other side doesn’t work, and I can’t find any sign of being able to get a left-side guide for this foot. We’ve also debated getting a chalk line to put one long line of chalk across the quilt at a time. But I’m not sure that will get me the straightest line now that it’s already pinned together.

Any ideas? Thoughts about how to fix this problem? I’d love to hear them, I’m kind of at a standstill until I magically solve this problem!