Almost all feet have guidelines on them that help us to line up fabrics and stitch lines. Sometimes the stitching we want to align with is wider apart than the width of the foot. For this reason, Janome has created a variety of Quilt guide bars that attach to the machine feet in different ways to help us repeat rows of stitching that are further apart from the foot marking(s).
You can always just use the edge of the foot as a guideline for stitching, but this may create lines of stitching that are very close together and would result in quilting that would be very dense.
I do not mark my quilts when doing quilting. I don’t use chalk lines, pins, tape, or anything else to create my lines. I simply stitch one line to start with and then follow that line over and over to create my quilt patterns. They may be traditional cross hatch; decorative stitches repeats; or a combination of stitch types and lines to quilt my project. I also do a lot of machine embroidery on my quilts and I like to quilt straight through large embroidery designs using a very light weight thread so it does not take away from the stitch design itself. Below is an example of an embroidery design that is very linear (like red work) and I colored in some elements of the design. I then quilted in a cross hatch pattern across the quilt straight through the design itself with a light weight thread.
For the above design I simply used my AcuFeed Flex foot and attached the quilt guide arm to the foot to stitch the lines that are approximately 2 inches apart.
Feet snap onto the foot holder which has a hole in it and can be used for the guide bar. The guide bar inserts into this hole on the shank/foot holder. You can insert the guide from the right or left side of the attached foot.
Most of our machines come standard with a Quilting Guide bar – which would work with the foot holder or walking foot/Acufeed/Acufeed Flex foot – whichever walking foot system that particular model has.
Even Feed Guide Bars are available to aid in your alignment of stitched rows. These are used with machine models which have the white screw on walking feet or Even feed feet.
The Border Guide Foot works well for aligning decorative stitch lines and also placing a second decorative stitch exactly between the middle of two stitch lines. Since it is clear view, you can see exactly where your previous lines of stitching are located.
The Sliding Guide Foot helps you to align previous rows of stitches. The sliding guide is adjustable and locks into place when you determine the width between stitch lines. This foot is great as it attaches directly to the foot holder on the machine with a simple click in place.
Not all feet fit all models of Janome machines so be sure to check with your dealer as to which feet are available for your specific model of Janome machine.