I am having trouble with quilting my quilt and need some advise. I am trying to quilt a lap size on my Singer which is supposed to support quilting on it. When I free move my fabric and make any kind of movement my bobbin thread is very very loose. I am not sure if I am moving to quickly when moving the fabric or I need to tighten my bobbin thread or what I am doing wrong. At this point I think I am going to have to take it all out and I believe that would ruin my fabric, or just stitch over it once I figure out what I am doing wrong. The fabric I am using is my top is cotton and the bottom is fleece, maybe this is the reason, I am just not sure.


PLease any advise would help me.

Tell us a few more details--are you using a quilting/embroidery foot? Have you dropped or covered your feed dogs? Do you lower the foot clamp lever? Have you tried just doing a test on scrap pieces layered like your quilt--that always helps. On the test, does it work ok on straight, then not work on moving the fabric sideways? Do the test piece and adjust the tension a bit and see if that helps. Go faster and slower and see what happens. Once you have the test right you don't have to rip on your good quilt!

The foot I am using is a regular foot that I would use to straight stitch... I did drop the feed dog, (don't know what you mean about covering) foot clamp lever????? :( On my quilt it works when I do a straight stitch and go slow. I will play with it tonight on a layered test and see how that goes. I am very new at all this so I didn't think before doing, I just went for it, and now I wish I would have put some more planning in it.

Check your top tension, it may be to loose. The fleece may be the problem, cover the feed dog area.

I am not sure what you mean by cover the feed dog area?

My Kenmore machine doesn't drop the feed dogs, so I have to cover them with a piece of plastic. If you can drop them, you don't need to do that.
You might find a quilting/embroidery foot a help. It has a circular part that contacts the fabric, and a spring loaded shaft that keeps even pressure on the fabric. They are not too expensive. I find it really makes a difference when I am doing squiggly machine quilting.
For straight quilting and stitch in the ditch, I use a walking foot that keeps the fabric from scrunching and puckering. (They are a bit more expensive--between 15 and 25 dollars--you just need to get one that matches the height of your foot--either low shank or high shank.
Hope this helps.

I understand now, I do have an embroidery/quilting foot for both my Singer and my Kenmore. The feed dog drops on both of them so no need to cover right ? I have an attachment that looks like a walking foot but they called it something else, and I am not sure how to put it on. I guess I just need to take my time and figure it out instead of hurrying and trying to get things done to quickly.

Thank you very much, I will try get a picture and post it of the accessory that looks like the walking foot maybe you can tell me what it is.

Sandra