Thread Shredding

[Jo H.]

I am stumped. Before I take the machine in for service, I thought I would ask those of you who are much more experienced than I about the problems I am having while free motion quilting.

* Machine has a drop in bobbin.

* Needles tried: top stitch needle, regular needle, as well as Microtex sharps in various sizes depending on the thread I was using.

* Threads used: Bobbin Line, So Fine, Maderia Polyneon, Aurifill 50 weight

* Top and bottom of quilt: regular quilting weight fabric

* Batting: Quilter's Dream poly

Problems encountered:

I always pull the thread up from the bottom and am holding the threads off to the left or straight back. Even though I have both threads on top, I often get a tangle of threads at the start underneath the quilt sandwich. Of course, then I have to remove the first inch or so of quilting and requilt that area hoping that it doesn't do it again.

Next, the thread continues to shred regardless of how slow or fast I stitch or whether I am quilting forward or backwards or to the left or right. I've blammed this on myself all weekend but after trying so many different needle combinations as well as threads, I'm beginning to wonder if the machine could be doing something strange. This never happens on regular sewing and the machine 'never' has any tension problems or anything during normal sewing. This is why I was thinking it was something I am doing wrong but just don't know it.

I finished the small practice piece I was working on but the hours it took to unstitch and restitch only to unstitch again has made me not want to machine quilt ever again unless I can figure this out. It's hard to get into a rhythm and actually get some good practice in with so machine thread problems.

[wendy w.]

Just a thought it may be worth checking the throat plate to make sure it's smooth. I've snagged it with needle before, you can sand it down carefully :?

When you do the catching stitch at the start I've found moving the fabric back and forth a little rather than sewing on the spot prevents the problem.

[Nancy R.]

Hi JoJo -

I'm FAR from an expert, but have you tried playing with the top tension? For shredding, I would wonder if your top tension is too tight. Superior recommends loosening your top tension considerable when FMQ with all of their threads and I've found in my own experience that I generally have to loosen the top for other threads, too, when FMQ. When piecing, I move the top tension back to the regular value and that works well.

As for the nests, I don't generally get them at the beginning of my quilting if I've pulled the bobbin thread taut so there is not extra play down there. But I have gotten them periodically in the middle of my quilting and that seems to be from the bobbin suddenly spinning out of control. I would suggest begin careful to start slow and build up your speed at a constant pace and maybe get some magic genie washers to put in your bobbin case. I use those on my machines and am not certain that they help for me, but several well-known quilters swear by them (Leah Day and Patsy Thompson, off the top of my head). According to Leah, then work in drop in bobbins, although I've not tried that since I have a front-loading bobbin myself.

Hope some of this helps,

Nancy

[Nancy R.]

This comment is probably redundant, but when you say that you are getting a tangle of threads at the beginning, even though you are holding both threads back, it makes me wonder if a) you have your presser foot down (stupid I know - but when I first started fmembroidery we just took the foot off and if we forgot to put the lever down this was the same result) so leading on from a - b) have you double checked your thread through the top tension plates (again possibly stupid, since you have been trying different threads and have been re-threading the machine each time)

Other than these 2 duff ideas I regret to say that I am entirely unable to help, but good luck anyway.

[Jo H.]

Wendy, yes I did think to check the throat plate and can't feel anything abnormal on it. I'm not sure if I understand your instructions to move the fabric back and forth. Do you mean that you don't start off where you wanted to?

Nancy, I started off with the tension normal but did lower it after a while. I can't really say that it seemed to help much. I even used the bobbin that supposedly is made for free motioning. sigh.... I think you are right about the bobbin suddenly spinning out of control though. I can hear it and am not sure how to combat that. I am a slow quilter so going fast isn't a problem yet. I'll look into the genies. I really would like to play again but after the weekend, it is painful to even think of it.

[Jo H.]

Hi Rosemary,

Thanks for your response. Yes, the presser foot was down.

Your second comment reminded me of something that happened a few times that I forgot about. Occassionally, even though I am a slow quilter, the top thread would literally jump out of the very top threading area. I've never had that happen before and was shocked the first time it happened. I thought I must have threaded it wrong and redid it making sure the presser foot was up and the thread was getting into the disks properly. It happened a few other times as well. I told you I had a heck of a weekend trying to free motion!

[Jo H.]

Sounds like you need a long cool drink of something interesting with a high percentage of non-water liquid after a weekend like that - and perhaps some hand quilting to calm you down :wink:

[Jo H.]

FUNNY Rosemary because after that not so enjoyable machine quilting experience, I have enjoyed an hour of sitting at my floor frame and hand quilting. I've never been stressed out while hand quilting. Maybe I should throw in the towel and just continuing to hand quilt everything.

[ANNE E.]

It might sound silly but is your thread put into the bobbin case correctly, I have had the thread undo itself from the correct route and cause a mess underneath.
Hope you get it sorten soon
Anne

[Nancy R.]

JoJo - Continue to enjoy your hand quilting (something I want to start doing along with everything else in the world...), but please don't give up on the machine. It's nice to have as many tools in your belt as you can get! One thing you might look at also is how full your bobbin is. The bobbin tension will change slightly as you use up the thread, so maybe work with a full, but not too full, bobbin while working out the kinks. And double-check that your bobbin is being wound with even tension on the thread. If that is uneven, I could imagine that might make the bobbin spin wierdly periodically.

I can't think of any time that I've ever had the thread jump out of the upper tension disks. I'll have to think about what that might mean. Hmmm

If the problems persist, I would take the machine into the dealer and try it there to see what they have to say. If you can show them what's happening, they might have ideas of what to do differently or what might need some adjustment on the machine.

Nancy

[Norma H.]

I really can't figure out what is wrong here. You have done all the right things, you have tried all sorts of needles and you have used thread which I know from experience can be used for FMQ and you sew slow. I tend to think that there is something wrong with your machine. Which machine are you using? You might have said that in another thread but I can't remember if.
I have both a front loading machine and a top loading machine and they both work with what you mention. Only thing I change is the top tension to low and sometimes very low depending on the thread.
Hope you figure it out. It is fun when you have all these problems solved.

[wendy w.]

Jo Jo what I meant about moving the fabric was that when I start I take both threads to the top and do a few stitches to fasten it. If I keep in the same place I get a knot underneath, if I move it a couple of threads back and forth it doesn't happen.

I usually find if the thread is jumping in the top threading area its because the thread is catching on the notch in the spool or not unwinding evenly from the thread holder so adjusting that helps. If its catching on the spool I turn it over. Hope this helps, I've had every problem known to man (and woman) mostly because I'm self taught so learn the hard way :roll:

[Nancy R.]

Hi JoJo - You might also experiment to see if your problems occur however you move the quilt, or only if you move the quilt in certain directions. I've found, for example, that some of the Superior threads (most notably different SoFine weights and the PolyQuilter) tend to have problems in my machine. The SoFine threads (both #50 and #30) tend to shred if I quilt left to right or right to left but do fine in the back and forth directions. I'm using the PolyQuilter right now and am having a h*** of a time getting it to keep a constant tension in the stitch, no matter what I do and the problems are worse left-to-right than top-to-bottom. But other threads, like Superior Rainbows and FilTec Glide haven't had these problems in my machine (often on the same quilt as the problem threads). Since sewing machines are designed to sew back and forth, when FMQ we are moving the quilt in directions that the machine really isn't designed for so you might need a stronger thread. Anyway, if the problems only happen when moving in certain directions, that might help you evaluate what the problem is and get you one step closer to fixing it.

Nancy

[Lois B.]

JoJo, Have you had success with FMQ in the past with the machine you are using now? If so, then I'd say it's time to think that the problem is the machine or the thread. I believe from your description that this problem happens with a number of different kinds of threads, so I am thinking machine. You sew alot and thread constantly moving over metal parts create heat from friction. I remember taking my first machine, a Singer Slant-O-Matic, in for service when I was still in college. I was a Home Ec. Major - I sewed everything I owned. The machine might have been 4 years old. The repairman was amazed because the steel pin that holds the tension discs had a groove worn in it from thread passing over it. He had never seen anything like it. I am sure you sew quite alot and there could be more wear and tear on the machine than you might thing. Incidently, that part was replaced. It one of those really great machines made by Singer and its still going great guns, but the part needed to be replaced. My parents bought it for me for my 16th birthday and I will be 67 this year. Don't give up on FMQ or hand quilting either for that matter. When you get the machine and thread working well together it will be a pleasure. Stick with it, figure it out, and please, let us all learn from it. Take a break. Then figure it out.

[Jo H.]

Thanks everyone for all your support and advice. I really need all the help I can get.

I spoke with the machine technician on the phone today and he thinks the clearance for the needle/hook may need an adjustment. He's swamped right now so I'll have to wait until next week before he can work on it. I did manage to machine quilt a small 7 inch by 7 inch quilt sample with pretty good success. I switched back to Aurifil thread on top and bottom, kept the topstitch needle in, lowered the top tension to 3 and lowered the free motion foot to where it nearly is touching the top of the quilt. I also tried bringing the thread to the top way away from where I wanted to start and then moving to where I wanted to begin. That seemed to take care of the mess of threads underneath at the start of the quilting.

I'm very stubborn by nature :twisted: thanks to my mother so I won't give up. I just needed to get away from it but I also wanted to finish the small piece for my husband's recliner. It was my fault my frustration got so great because I wouldn't stop and walk away. Today, I'm better. :?

Here's a few photos of my project. I could have made three in the time it took me to quilt it. :roll: