Viking Quilter’s Presser Foot Kit

original FMQ foot

Since I’ve signed up for a few quilting classes and joined the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, I bought the Viking Sapphire Quilter’s Presser Foot Kit. I was mostly looking to add on a walking foot, like I tried to get earlier, but it was less expensive to get the whole kit. Go figure.

It came with a walking foot, a 1/4 inch plastic piecing foot and an open-circle, spring free motion quilting foot. I thought I would be ho-hum about the walking foot, and really into the new FMQ foot, but I’m actually reversed on that.

The walking foot is substantial.

Viking Walking Foot Front
Viking Walking Foot Front
Viking Walking Foot Side
Viking Walking Foot Side

It should have come with a longer bolt to attach it to the machine shank, I’m a bit irked about that, but it works really well. I’ll have to hunt down a longer bolt – right now it stays on if I tighten it down perfectly, but I don’t trust it….there’s just no way there’s enough threads of the bolt in there to sustain it for any lengthy period.

It sure makes for pretty and easy stitching though. These are the feather blocks I’ve been working on, pattern by Anna Maria Horner.

Viking Walking Foot Stitching
Viking Walking Foot Stitching
Viking Walking Foot Stitching
Viking Walking Foot Stitching

I have no idea what those blocks will be turned into; it has batting and stiff canvas as the backing ala Oh, Fransson!, thinking I’ll want a bag or a dust cover for my KitchenAid or something.

Then there’s the spring tension FMQ foot.

spring FMQ foot
spring FMQ foot

I’ve never had a problem with my original FMQ foot….here next to it and I’ve used previously in a few projects….

original FMQ foot
original FMQ foot

but it seems like everyone else uses these spring-loaded ones, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.

It’s….well, it…it makes me scream “WTF??” a LOT.

It will work great…

Viking Spring FMQ Pebbles
Viking Spring FMQ Pebbles

And then suddenly my upper tension will go just crazy, like the tension disks are stuck together and will not adjust down no matter what. I didn’t take any photos of the craziness it did on my feather blocks…I just ripped out the crazy stitches put it away before I cried.

But then I used it in class….we intentionally used contrasting threads to watch the tension. I was using 50 wt cotton yellow and gray on white muslin and cotton low-loft batting…

nonono
nonono

Then, there’s the back…see what I mean by WTF?

suckage
suckage

So, then I moved back to my little clip on plastic foot….and it was fine.

Paisley FMQ
Paisley FMQ
Paisley FMQ back
Paisley FMQ back

So…I don’t now. There’s an entire Yahoo Sapphire Group and I swear 90% of the threads (no pun intended) are on this topic alone – the tension and the FMQ foot. I’m seriously considering a Juki for quilting by this time next year….I will not put up with a machine not performing its function. Ms. Viking may just turn into a garment only machine if she keeps this up.

Lastly, it came with a plastic 1/4″ piecing foot. It’s too bad that it’s plastic, but I have to admit, I like it. I’d almost rather switch feet than remember to move the needle to the 1/4″ and back…Ms. Viking resets its needle position all too often, so this is a nice tool. I like the metal guide that comes down and keeps me in place. I like it a lot.

This photo was taken before I forgot I changed to a zig-zag stitch on something else and left this foot on…and put the microtex/sharp needle right through the plastic…so…that hole is a little wider now.

quarter inch foot
quarter inch foot

So….there’s my novella on the Viking Quilt Kit for now. I’ll let you know if that spring foot gets me mad enough to chuck it.

Anna Maria Horner’s Feather Block

Close Up

No one can resist the Feather Block by Anna Maria Horner. It’s whimsical and sophisticated at the same time. It can be used for dedicated fabric or to go through leftover fabric. It has a lot of pieces….but it’s pretty simple.

I have some free motion quilting to practice, but I wanted to practice on things that I was going to use and not just muslin or scrap batting sandwiches. Dangerous? Yes. So…I compromised and made practice blocks to practice quilt on. It all makes sense in my head.

Mom went to McMinnville, Oregon with her BFF to go to antique shops and quilting shops, etc. I love McMinnville. It may be my favorite town in all of Oregon. How can you not LOVE a town that has a sexy Ben Franklin statue?

ben baby
ben baby

Hahahaha. Ew.

Really I do love McMinnville. Mom went to Boersma’s and brought me back a bag of scraps….that doesn’t read nearly as cool as it is…

Boersma's
Boersma’s

Big old bag of really high quality scraps. HAHAHA. She’s going to read this….she knows I love it and that I appreciate it!

Anywho, it was a perfect, already matched up stash to try out the feather block. Most of the fabric was already in perfect width strips for strip-piecing together.

strip piecing
strip piecing

Ms. Horner’s site has the link to the PDF pattern with instructions. Isn’t that SO GENEROUS? I went to FedEx/Kinkos and had them print the pattern pages (2) on 80 lb. card stock so that I’d have a sturdy template for my rotary cutter for a whopping $0.43.

It was really easy, by the way…just walk into Kinkos, ask them their email, email the link from your smart phone, and ask them to print the last two pages on card stock (80 lbs is technically cover stock, if I recall, but whatever – ask for 80 lb weight paper). You can email on their website or whatever, but I find it so much easier to just walk in. No toner/printer/paper fuss. I kept the instructions up on my iPad while I was working. Easy.

pattern
pattern

The instructions are for strips of width of fabric as if you’re cutting strips from a fat quarter or what-have-you, but you can finagle scraps just fine. Sorry about low light photo, whoopsie….but see the lines on the pattern Anna put on? That made it super easy to get the ‘feathers’ lined up so when you piece it, they’re at the same angle to the edge.

cutting pattern
cutting pattern

So, yeah. I started with a Kona Bone/neutral, and tinkered with a bit of teal. I prefer the teal….but if I was going to do a big scrappy quilt and use up all my mismatched scraps, I’d probably stick to the neutral.

Anna Maria Horner's Feather Blocks
Anna Maria Horner’s Feather Blocks
Close Up
Close Up