Thread: Pulling my hair out - FMQ (trying to learn) on Janome 6600 - GRRRR

One of the main reasons for thread breakage is a needle-thread mismatch. Start with a really, really big eyed needle, like a top-stitch needle, as someone said. With it, use a fairly fine-weight thread at least until you've found a "safe place" with little to no thread breakage.

And try polyester thread -- a hush fills the room ;-), although the idea that you shouldn't mix cotton and poly is a well-repeated myth ;-). Trilobal poly will be less nubby than cotton and thus less likely to catch in the quilt sandwich and break. Leah Day (the 365 quilt block lady) uses Isacord poly, but many of the poly threads will do. I even use Maxi-Lock swirls, in my longarm quilter. Although it's actually a bit nubby, it's fine-ness makes up for it. It is fun and holds up really well! But a trilobal poly will generally be smoother. The high-end pros like Karen McTavish use Glide trilobal poly.

You also want the needle to be nice and sharp. It has to make a clean hole through the quilt sandwich to prevent shredding the thread in the fabric sandwich. So make sure the needle is new and not damaged.

And patience helps. Watch some of the quilting videos online. Use them to help you develop a medium-speed rhythm.

And yes, another vote for setting your stitch length to 0.

Originally Posted by coopah

Or join a guild where members are happy to help you and bring in instructors once or twice a year. Some quilt shops also give lessons, but be careful with that. I see you list Leesburg and I'm in Ocala. Our guild is terrific at helping you learn and is open to anyone for nominal dues. The Villages have quite a few guilds, but I think you actually have to live there to join. FMQ is not my area of expertise, so I have no suggestions. I'm a PA-FL gal, too!

Coopah - I sure wish Ocala was closer to Leesburg. I'd love to be able to go to your quilt guild. I have gone to several guilds that are not quite as friendly as yours sounds.

There was a glitch in making the 6600 I found out through my dealer. He said always raise your feed dogs before shutting off the machine. Then turn machine on and wait just 30 sec or so then drop the feed dogs for FMQ. This information was given from the main manufacturer. I had my machine in for the same problem you had about 4 times and they finally really checked it out. Try it and see if it works for you. It did for me.

I just watched Nancy's Notions with Molly Hanson on doing free motion for beginners.
http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog/sewi...for-beginners/

It took me a year of practice until I got something worth the time. I have found that using an embroidery needle works well. My thread for a while was shredding and frustrating but my husband looked the machine over and found a tiny barb on the shaft from sewing over pins. He managed to sand it down and it is now fine!

I too have a janome 6600p and did a lot of reading because I seemed to struggle with the FMQ part. I would say you have a lot of good advice already from other posters but if that does not resolve the issue have a look at the following interesting items : Free motion bobbin case - Janome 6600

http://content.janome.com/fusetalk/f...&threadid=1893


http://freemotionquiltingadventures....lt-set-up.html