KenmoreGal2

Thanks Annette. I changed my needle and things improved. Still some breakage but not much. But why does the thread only break when I'm in between fabric? Plus, the last break before I finished this stage in my quilt produced a whopper. Look at the photo I took. How on earth does that happen? My thread looks like a cat's cradle from childhood.

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KenmoreGal2

Thanks Doghousemom. I like your technique. In addition to the new needle I was much slower and more careful especially when transitioning between pieces. I think it helped. I'll also try your technique.

Prism99

Tension could still be an issue. Is there any lint underneath the feed dogs or in the bobbin area? That can change the tension balance. May only become a problem when there is no fabric moderating interaction between the two threads.

KenmoreGal2

Hmm....interesting theory. This machine gets very linty. Every time I change the bobbin I do a complete disassemble and cleaning. I'll check the area. I changed the bobbin earlier today but I wouldn't be surprised if there is lint there already. It's odd - this machine gets so much lintier than my other one, a Kenmore 117.740, which is basically the same machine except the bobbin area is configured a little differently.

Barb in Louisiana

My thread was doing that extra threads bit, when my bobbin case wasn't put in properly. My bobbin is a top load, but the case wasn't snapped into place all the way, therefore the bobbin itself wasn't rolling properly and the top thread was catching on part of the bobbin case mechanism. It created quite a mess.

I don't know if that would cause a problem in the side load bobbins.

Edited to add: The bobbin case was only off about 1/100ths of an inch. I had a hard time figuring out the problem.

Barb_MO

I never could sew without fabric under the presser foot. My sister in law used it and she did it and worked just fine. She continued stitching at the end of a piece until the chain was long enough to cut and start sewing again without unthreading the needle. I thought if she can do that on my machine I can too so I started sewing a few stitches between pieces and it works for me too. Usually I only do three or four stitches before I start again.
Kenmore, if you use a better thread you won't get so much lint build up. Just a thought.

Gay

I'm going to be different and suggest that you do pull the sewn piece - to the back, not the side. But not too hard, you don't want to hit the needle plate, Just keep the threads firm. I run the machine for several inches this way, otherwise without any fabric and no tension behind, the needle going down tends to pull the threads back under the plate. If you begin sewing 1/4' into the fabric without holding the threads tight, do you notice the ends have knotted on the reverse side?

Just a suggestion, it works for me, and I find those couple of extra stitches helps prevent the cut ends from unravelling.

KenmoreGal2

Thanks Gay and the 2 Barbs for ideas and suggestions. I'll try them today. With respect to the lint, I have read about the no-name threads being linty but what's odd is I piece on my Kenmore 117.841 (my avatar) and FMQ with my 117.740 which is essentially the same machine but the bobbin arrangement is a bit different. Using the same exact thread, I can always clean out lint at each bobbin change with the 841 but I can FMQ an entire lap quilt on the 740 and have no lint at all in the bobbin area when I'm done. It's a mystery to me. I also used to have a 1970's Kenmore which never got lint in the bobbin area. It must have something to do with the specific design of the area in the 841. No worries - I love that machine and I'm happy to keep cleaning it!

Barb_MO

Then maybe it is the needle size or type of needle. Looking at the picture posted the thread mess looks as if the needle is not inserted properly, make sure you have the flat side of the need in the right position.

KenmoreGal2

I'll check again. What's odd is that I'd successfully chain pieced at least 5 - 12" squares before that happened. Usually the thread would just break off at the top, it was actually shredded looking. But this time, what a mess!! I have this type of thing happen very very occasionally and it always mystifies me. Because things are going along fine and then - bam!!

Could I sew successfully with the needle inserted wrong for a while? I love my machine and I've looked at diagrams and videos of how it works, but it's still a bit of a mystery to me when things like this happen.