sewing machine woes

it's a Brother QC1000, 8 weeks old

Anne

Sadly, I've tried all those things, purposely made a sample of the exact fabrics (which took a bit of measureing don't want to have a problem not having enough later), same batting too. I haven't tried a mettalica needle, but I think I've done pretty much everything else, including going up a size from 80/12 to 90/14

Cheers Anne

I don't know how new, I'd guess fairly new. I'm a little suspicious about the bobbin too. It has happened with a variety of threads and needles. The odd thing is, if you rethread, including taking the bobbin out, it does seem to go ok for a few minutes, which is why I suspect the bobbin and I am using the bobbins that are for the machine.

My husband said that the store manager had said he'd lend me the floor model if we had to bring it in again, which would give me a chance to try the same but different and see if it's my machine, or a design flaw. My fear is that if I get the same problem on the floor machine, they'll say it's me and though I know I'm not a perfect award winning quilter, I know I can get my old Janome to do all these things and I didn't spend all this money on a new machine to have it only work with some combination of needle and thread that I haven't found yet!

Anne

Is your sample exactly the same fabric and batting as your quilt border?

I had that kind of trouble when I was attempting to quilt a water-color quilt that was made with a gridded fusible interfacing and pin-basted, using a poly batting.. I finally gave up and put it away for a while (months, maybe years, I don't really remember). I finally got it out again and frog-stitched the quilting that I had done, un-sandwiched it, and washed the top in an attempt to soften it up a bit. Then I spray-basted it to a cotton batting and tried again. This time I also made sure I used a jeans needle; I'm not sure what I used the first time

-- probably a universal needle. This time it worked just fine -- same machine, same thread. However, I can't say what made the difference. Was it the washing? Or the batting? Or the spray basting? Or the needle? I changed a lot of variables there, but maybe there is something there that will suggest something else you might try.

Julia in MN

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Anne Rogers wrote:

Anne,

I don't have much to add that the others haven't already said except two things:

(1) try free motion with piecing thread (the combo that works for piecing) and 1-2 layers of fabric, no batting.

(2) If you have to take the machine back in, give them a sample also and say "I want to FM with this thread on this fabric with this batting". If this is a general problem for you, you might not need to give up this particular sample (I see that you are having to measure carefully to have enough fabric) - any "normal" sample which fails in this way for you should work for them.

With all this - it sounds to me like "something" got stuck somewhere, fluff or a piece of thread.

Good Luck!!

Hanne in London

Anne Rogers wrote:

So I tried again before sending it to the shop.

I used Mettler machine quilting thread, 40wt, a brand new spool, bought at a LQS yesterday. I used it in both the bobbin and upper thread. I put in a brand new Schmetz 90/14 quilting needle.

Right from the first stitch it was skipping, at first it would skip occasionally and not at any consistent direction of movement, then after a bout 2-3 inches of that it would skip and not take another stitch, I watched and listened, the presser foot was definitely pressing well on the fabric at the point of taking the stitch, the needle was making a nice clean punch, after about 10-15 punches, I'd hear a clunk from down below and the upper thread would snap whilst the needle was down.

It's in it's bag now, ready to go :-(.

Anne

Same materials in the sample. Tried a jeans needle :-(.

Anne

I had the same problem with an old Singer machine. They had to make an adjustment in the bobbin case. As the machine aged, and it was heavily used, the constant problems became more than I wanted to put up with. I finally traded it in and got a New Home machine. But that was around the time we moved and built this house... so I haven't used this one as much as I did the old Singer from 1968.

I don't think you are really skipping stitches. I think that it is more that you are not moving your fabric at a constant speed as you turn corners or change directions. I just starting quilting my own quilts less than a year ago and two things I've learned have helped fix this. One is that if you can adjust the speed of the machine you should move it to the lowest speed for quilting. My machine regularly stitches over 800 stitches per minute. When I adjust it to 180 stitches per minute I can put my presser foot to the floor (don't let up the foot unless you want to stop) and stay pretty much at a constant motion while quilting. The other thing that has been a big help is purchasing and using a teflon sheet on the machine surface while quilting. It helps the fabric slide easier while quilting. One last thing, if you don't already use them while quilting use gloves while quilting to move the fabric easier too. I use a brand called Machingers and love them. Hope this helps.

Oh, Anne,

40 wt. Mettler??? That is a very heavy thread. I would try the 60 wt if I were you. That is the heaviest weight I use in the Mettlers. Aurifil 50 wt is the same number but if you look at them together you can see how much lighter the Aurifil is. The 50 wt is heavy enough but I think 40 wt is pretty heavy. Might take a size 16 needle.

Please, if anyone disagrees, please don't throw stones!!

it doesn't seem particularly heavy, most sources suggest 40wt as a quilting thread. King Tut, favoured by long armers is 40 wt. I know the thread wt is not always that accurate, but this seems like a reasonably true rating with anything I've compared it with.

DH took it into the shop, the assistant tried it out and could instantly see and hear it was the machine, not the thread, or the user. They did comment last week that maybe my thread was too fine, 50wt Aurifil and

50wt Coats and Clark.

Besides, the thread is not shredding, you can hear and feel a crunch as something snaps it right through, I think some of the threads have looked like shredding because the twist in the thread has made one of the plys spin up the others at the moment of breaking, but careful watching, feeling and listening has me pretty confident that when it does break, it's a sudden break, rather than a deterioration.

Cheers Anne

why are people assuming I don't have eyes? I've not just had this problem once and grumped and not tried everything to fix it. I've been watching feeling, listening, I see the needle punch and not pull up the bobbin thread. Sure, I don't have perfect stitch regulation and the occasional long stitch does occur, a stitch an inch long after a nice neat row of evenly spaced stitches when I see the needle punching the fabric, when I'm moving slowly and stitching slowly, that's a skipped stitch, it's not me suddenly deciding I'll move the fabric super fast and not speed the machine up....

Personally, I think it is a very good thing that you got that SM sacked up and DH carried it off. Probably I would have gotten out a tire tool and beat it to death. Enough aggravation is enough. I hope you at least gave it a swift kick before you told it goodbye. Patience is one of my few virtues but even that will only go so far. Polly

Even though you want a machine that works, it must be a good feeling to know that someone else also thinks there is a problem. Sure hope they can get it fixed for you -- and soon.

Julia in MN

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I think it's the machine itself. Almost 3 years ago I bought a Pfaff

2144 (now upgraded to 2170) and that machine has nearly driven me mad. The clunk that was mentioned in another post was something that I heard in mine too.

The first 1 1/2 years that machine spent more time in the shop that at my home! The shop could not reproduce the problems that I was having. But in sitting down with the owner of the shop when I went to pick it up the last time, he admitted that it wasn't working right. They swapped the head out for the last one they had of that model.

When the tension suddenly flipped out for no good reason and couldn't be adjusted properly right before Christmas I made up my mind. I packed up the machine and all of the attachments and as soon as I get a chance, I'm selling it. Perhaps it will work fine for someone else, but I'm not willing to spend my life fighting this machine. We spent tons of money on it and all of the "goodies" that I bought to go with it, but it's just not worth the headaches it gives me.

My old machine, plus a small lightweight one for classes that I got for Christmas just give me peace when I sit down to work at them. There's a joy there. But the new machine made it "unfun" to sew any more. What a difference! So if the problem can't be resolved, you may want to think about getting your money back and test drive a different machine.

Mary in Mesa

Anne Rogers wrote:

it turned out that when it went in 2 weeks ago the guy that was the most knowledgeable about this brand was off sick, so now it's been sent off with strict orders for only a particular person to work on it. If it happens again, I'll definitely be pushing for a refund, or replacement machine.

Anne

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:51:04 -0600, Anne Rogers wrote (in article ):

Is the backing on your quilt a white on white? Sometimes there is something sort of "rubbery" in WoW fabrics that makes the machine misbehave.

Maureen