Fmq help!
 

First of all, I am new here, so "Hello" to everyone. And thanks for all advice I gathered just snooping around on this site prior to registering ;)
I am still getting the hang of FMQ and it can be so frustrating. I was trying to quilt a cotton fabric with a terry cloth backing. Quilting with the walking foot was great. When I tried to FMQ a section...skipped stitches and the thread was shredding. I researched and tried all the suggestions. I cleaned the machine, changed the needle, checked my needle and thread combination, and so on. It kept doing it. I prepared a regular quilt sandwich to practice and it FMQ just fine. Went back to the fabric/terry cloth and again the thread shredded. Is it something about the terry cloth? Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? The only other time I've had skipped stitches was recently when trying to zig-zag around an applique. (Also very frustrating!)

welcome... my only suggestion... try putting thin paper behind/under the terrycloth?

Sorry I can not give you any advice, my trouble comes with Minkee, I picked up knit needles so will hope this works. My machine occasionally skips stitches in fancy stitch mode, too. Will watch your question, maybe someone can answer.

"judylg" may have the right suggestion-- ballpoint might be the answer for pushing thread thru terrycloth.

I second the the ballpoint needle suggestion.

I've never done terry cloth. skipped stitches is usually your moving the fabric too fast, perhaps it sticks and you jerk it also. try some squares of cotton with batting inside. practice. your foot pedal speed will be faster than your hand movement of your quilt squares. slower means smaller stitches, faster means longer stitches.

You might try a needle with a larger eye and also those little disks you can put in your bobbin to keep the thread from jumping--can't remember what they are called but someone will know and chime in.

just looked through my needle stash and found that I don't have any ball points. I'll have to put that on my shopping list! Thanks for the suggestions.