Hi Angela - Thank you so much for this Live Chat! I can't tell you how much I have learned from your FMQs and live chats! I work on a regular sewing machine -- is it fair to say that the amount of pushing, pulling, and even twisting of the quilt sandwich is really likely to bend/damage the needle??? Barb
Cheers Angela, Thank you for your technical discussion on tension. I learned a lot and I liked that you said take notes when something happens so you know what did when troubleshooting. My needle bent ever so lightly and the thread kept breaking. I check the needle too now. Sometimes I just remove bobbin and reinsert or re-thread the machine and I'm good to go. Thank you for all your suggestions 😊
Hi Angela, I'm going start a customer quilt today and I'm going to use the dot to dot designs you just taught. I'm so excited to have gone through most of your live chats you've been doing. I know the topic is tension today but I wanted you to know that I'm going to apply what I've just learned.
Thank you so much for this information. I have been in tears over this issue just this week and no it didn't fix the problem. So with this info it's back to the drawing board and no more tears. My machine is new to me and I think that when you buy a new machine it should come out of the box ready to go with no adjustments. I am an old time quilter. Have a great week off. Looking forward to your next video.
I am a new sit down long armer and had no idea how different tension on a long arm versus a regular sewing machine was. When I sat up my machine and started out I didn’t have the thread popped into the tension discs properly I was so frustrated and I finally watched enough RU-vid videos I figured it out. I started with 50 weight Aurifil cotton thread and my machine loved it , but then I went down the thread rabbit hole and got glide thread and I hate it it kept shredding , I retraced the path for nicks, rethreaded and rethreaded,and finally got on and ask for help and it seemed the tension was to tight and it was shredding coming out of the tension discs so I had to keep loosening till it stop shredding . I want to go back to Aurifil it quilted so beautiful and I clean and oil my machine with a new needle after each quilt .
I have come up with this neat trick to help identify tension issues. I use two different colors of the same white thread in my top and bobbin. Then I begin to sew as I normally would. Here’s the key: if the top thread is misbehaving, tighten your top tension. T for top thread, t for tighten. if the bobbin thread (or lower thread) is misbehaving, loosen your top thread. L for lower, L for loosen. I never adjust attention for the bobbin. Only the top thread tension gets adjusted. And only say an eight or a quarter of a turn at a time between Sewing tests.
Will you do a video for loading a quilt on a long arm with and without leader cloths? Your videos are so helpful and enjoy watching as many that I can.
Not a tension issue, but when you 'break thread', do you literally cut top and bottom thread before starting in a new place? I've done that, but also if moving a short distance I've done a few stitches in place, raised the pressure foot, and started again. So far no issues, but is that a bad thing to do?
I have a Sweet 16. Sometimes when I am FMQ’ing, the thread will wrap around the little lever on the back. Sometimes I can feel or hear something different but not always. When I look at the back, the bobbin thread will be pulled taut and there will be puckers/loop. Am I doing something wrong, moving my quilt too quickly or the wrong way? Tension on top and bottom seems fine (I am usually using Glide) Thanks!
Good morning. I am struggling with tension when free motion and ruler work on my new juki dx 2000. When my foot is up, I find my tension disk is hanging on to thread for dear life. I am experiencing glide thread shredding while free motion quilting and I have tried adjusting the tension so that it does not hang on so tight to thread. I thought that if the foot is up the thread should easily pull through the needle.
I have changed needle, changed bobbin, rethreaded, cleaned machine, put it in straight stitch and checked stitch again, I need a glass of wine. The machine is too new for a hammer. Lol
I've got a babylock jazz 2. Its fairly new machine. I accidentally somehow messed up the bobbin case. Meaning the bobbin case somehow jumped completely around and my needle ending up hitting the case causing a piece of the plastic on the bobbin case to bend. I used the same bobbin case but only to piece with until today. I finally got the new bobbin case in the mail. So I assumed all the crazy tension issues was because of the damaged bobbin case. Put the new bobbin case in and it's still giving me problems. The bottom thread is literally big loops. Definitely road tracks. It's horrible.... and I'm so frustrated with trying to quilt. Any advice on what else it could be???
This "needle hitting the bobbin case" happens with my Janome. I finally ordered 2 cases and now always have one in my drawer. When I use it, I order a new one. This way I can keep going.
With my sewing machine, when the thread and bobbin is ok to me and I am still having issues with tension, my next step is to clean the bobbin area and most times this will solve the problem.
