Machine quilting newbie

Hello Girls!

I've never machine quilted before and yesterday I tryed to follow the directions I read in last posts about this matter on a few little sandwiches made just for learning this. It ended up in a mess of thread on the bottom layer.. it was like a nest! I set the upper tension then the lower bobbin tension little by little but I can't get out of it. :( Dogs are down, and I used the " clear big foot" I just bought from ebay. it seems at the end that the upper tension is too loose and the bobbin very tight, but the bobbin is still too much loose for the normal stitch and the upper is tightened at the maximum... Please help!! I'm very frustrated :((

Apest

I have done alot of Machine quilting and in my experience you are getting the nest of threads underneath because your top thread is not correctly following the threading guides -- that is the first thing to check anyway. Next it is possible that your particular machine needs to have the bottom thread pulled through to the top to secure it. So take one stitch and pull up the bottom thread to the top. Oh and put your tensions back to normal, there is very little change in tensions, possibly tighter on top, but I very rarely change the bottom tension -- I have three different machines that I have done machine quilting on, and the principles are pretty much the same in every case...

Oh and by the way -- I'm sorta new to the group, but not new to quilting -- I did read the group a few years back, well more like 6 to

8 years ago, and for some reason have not been part of it since then... Thought I would take a peek and see what is going on -- there are a few names in the postings that I remember, too.

visit my blog at

Also, since the foot doesn't sit right on the fabric, it is very easy to forget to lower the presser foot.

Make sure you lower the presser foot, since otherwise, there is next to no tension on the top thread.

Hanne in London

snipped-for-privacy@canada.com wrote:

Apest - I wish I could help but I do not do much quilting myself. But from the sound of the problems you are aving -

First put the tension settings back to normal. No quilting should require that much variation except possibly some stitching with very exotic/textured threads. I assume you are working with good quality cotton threads aren't you?

Then I would completely rethread the machine top and bottom. It sounds like one or both of your threads have come out of one of the guides. When you sew again watch and listen to your machine carefully to see if there is a sudden change in how it is sewing just after you start to quilt. And check that you can sew/quilt with the feed dogs up - just in normal straight lines with a walking or normal foot - to be sure that your machine is capable of dealing with the quilting sandwich. Is the Big Foot jumping up and down with the needle motion as it should? With the lever of the presser foot lowered, the Big Foot should come down on the sandwich when the needle is decends to make each stitch.

Those are the main things I can think of. Hopefully someone who does more quilting will be able to help you more.

Good luck

snipped-for-privacy@canada.com ha scritto:

uhm... I'll check better. sometimes it seems that the top tension isn't working correctly also on straight normal stitches

uh, but without the fabric in or through the fabric? I normally take the bottom thread up and then insert the fabric and sew.

Welcome! I'm kinda new here and I can't post so much (damn work!!) but I assure you I lurk a lot :D thanks a lot for your tips!!

hugs!! Apest

Hanne Gottliebsen ha scritto:

Presser down, quite sure about this.. :((

Apest

CATS ha scritto:

Yess.. Brand new bought from the quilt shop.

Thanks, I'll try this evening, I'd like to prepare some potholders and little bag as Xmas gifts for my colleagues and I want to be in advance this year because I won't have so much time in december to quilt :((

Apest

You've already gotten some good advice, I just want to mention one thing: With most older machines (don't know about the new computerized machines) you ***must*** have the presser foot ***down*** to adjust the tension. When the presser foot is up, you can twist that tension knob till Texas freezes, and it won't make a bit of difference.

Okay, you probably knew that.

Hey, she may have know it but I didn't. Thanks for the advise Carolyn. Just hang around here long enough and you learn all kinds of things.

Jacquel>You've already gotten some good advice, I just want to mention one thing:

I mean known, funny how we see our mistakes once we post.

Jacquel>Hey, she may have know it but I didn't. Thanks for the advise