Quilting thread broke after quilt was done.
01-05-2014, 11:50 AM
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: West central Illinois
Posts: 2,919
I use Signature cotton a lot. Maybe a bad spool or old thread.
Originally Posted by KarenR
Here is the information on the thread:
Signature-QT
TEX 40 3000 yards
Stitching lines : 5 inches apart
Yes I could break it when I jerked on it.
Old Thread? I just bought it for this project.
I'm so sad- I'm bringing the quilt to the store I bought the thread from- They helped pick it out for me and she knew what it would be used for. I had the quilt top there as we were matching colors.
I dried the quilt in the drier.
Signature-QT
TEX 40 3000 yards
Stitching lines : 5 inches apart
Yes I could break it when I jerked on it.
Old Thread? I just bought it for this project.
I'm so sad- I'm bringing the quilt to the store I bought the thread from- They helped pick it out for me and she knew what it would be used for. I had the quilt top there as we were matching colors.
I dried the quilt in the drier.
01-05-2014, 12:00 PM
#12
Super Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Pacific NW
Posts: 9,397
I thought Signature was a serger thread...? I could be wrong. I had some a few years ago and threw it out because it broke so easily.
I agree with previous posters who said to try the break test, where you tug it hard to see how easily it breaks. I was hired to finish a quilt that a friend had started, and she just didn't have the patience to finish sewing the binding down. She was using some kind of thick, heavy, cotton thread. I was able to snap it with one little tug. I use a double strand of Bottom Line. Despite the fact that it is a fine 60 wt thread, it is very strong, and I can't get it to break at all.
I agree with previous posters who said to try the break test, where you tug it hard to see how easily it breaks. I was hired to finish a quilt that a friend had started, and she just didn't have the patience to finish sewing the binding down. She was using some kind of thick, heavy, cotton thread. I was able to snap it with one little tug. I use a double strand of Bottom Line. Despite the fact that it is a fine 60 wt thread, it is very strong, and I can't get it to break at all.
01-05-2014, 12:15 PM
#14
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Corpus Christi, Tx.
Posts: 16,105
I have some Coats and Clark that states Machine Quilting on the end of the spool.
Originally Posted by Prism99
What brand of thread was it? If you can provide the brand, type, weight and ply of the thread, that would be very helpful. Some brands are better than others, plus weight and ply give an indication of thread strength.
How far apart were your quilting lines? The farther apart your quilting lines are, the more stress is put on the thread (from washing, drying, and using). I like to use 50wt 2-ply Aurifil for quilting on my domestic machine, but this is for fairly close quilting or for decorative stitches (such as the serpentine); it would probably not be strong enough if I did straight line quilting with lines 6 or 8" apart.
The fact that the thread broke on the hand-stitched binding indicates to me the thread was not strong enough. I have always used 50wt 3-ply thread (single strand) on bindings and never had it break.
Was this new thread? Old thread (and it possibly could be old coming off the shelf) can develop dry rot and break easily. If you still have the thread, take a strand between two hands and jerk them apart to see if you can break it that way. If you can, it's too weak.
I can't remember ever remember buying thread that said "machine quilting" on it. Curious about the brand.
Edit: Some people get away with using serger thread for piecing and quilting, but I suspect they piece with fairly small stitches and put their quilting lines in fairly close together. The weakness of serger thread is okay for serging because there are always a minimum of 3 threads working together for a serger stitch. It's not great for sewing on a domestic machine because of the weakness of the thread and also because it is made with such short strands of cotton (which makes for lots of fuzz and lint).
How far apart were your quilting lines? The farther apart your quilting lines are, the more stress is put on the thread (from washing, drying, and using). I like to use 50wt 2-ply Aurifil for quilting on my domestic machine, but this is for fairly close quilting or for decorative stitches (such as the serpentine); it would probably not be strong enough if I did straight line quilting with lines 6 or 8" apart.
The fact that the thread broke on the hand-stitched binding indicates to me the thread was not strong enough. I have always used 50wt 3-ply thread (single strand) on bindings and never had it break.
Was this new thread? Old thread (and it possibly could be old coming off the shelf) can develop dry rot and break easily. If you still have the thread, take a strand between two hands and jerk them apart to see if you can break it that way. If you can, it's too weak.
I can't remember ever remember buying thread that said "machine quilting" on it. Curious about the brand.
Edit: Some people get away with using serger thread for piecing and quilting, but I suspect they piece with fairly small stitches and put their quilting lines in fairly close together. The weakness of serger thread is okay for serging because there are always a minimum of 3 threads working together for a serger stitch. It's not great for sewing on a domestic machine because of the weakness of the thread and also because it is made with such short strands of cotton (which makes for lots of fuzz and lint).
01-05-2014, 04:10 PM
#15
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: West central Illinois
Posts: 2,919
Signature thread isn't serger thread. It is a high quality cotton thread for longarm machines. I use it on the rare occasion that I don't use Glide.
Originally Posted by Peckish
I thought Signature was a serger thread...? I could be wrong. I had some a few years ago and threw it out because it broke so easily.
I agree with previous posters who said to try the break test, where you tug it hard to see how easily it breaks. I was hired to finish a quilt that a friend had started, and she just didn't have the patience to finish sewing the binding down. She was using some kind of thick, heavy, cotton thread. I was able to snap it with one little tug. I use a double strand of Bottom Line. Despite the fact that it is a fine 60 wt thread, it is very strong, and I can't get it to break at all.
I agree with previous posters who said to try the break test, where you tug it hard to see how easily it breaks. I was hired to finish a quilt that a friend had started, and she just didn't have the patience to finish sewing the binding down. She was using some kind of thick, heavy, cotton thread. I was able to snap it with one little tug. I use a double strand of Bottom Line. Despite the fact that it is a fine 60 wt thread, it is very strong, and I can't get it to break at all.
01-05-2014, 11:02 PM
#16
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Noblesville IN
Posts: 16
Thead breaks, grrr
I hav a Voyagers 17, and bout to throw it out of the house, threads breaks continuely, count to 15, thread breaks, change needle change thread, check for spur, sand them out, re thread machine, it frays then breaks, and needle won't catch bottom thread when moving forward (up), being service now, does any one out thr hav lots of problems w/ the Voyager 17, it a stretch machine from Singer which they no longer make. Not to happy 
01-05-2014, 11:23 PM
#17
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 12,930
Originally Posted by leightred
I hav a Voyagers 17, and bout to throw it out of the house, threads breaks continuely, count to 15, thread breaks, change needle change thread, check for spur, sand them out, re thread machine, it frays then breaks, and needle won't catch bottom thread when moving forward (up), being service now, does any one out thr hav lots of problems w/ the Voyager 17, it a stretch machine from Singer which they no longer make. Not to happy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1mRhcquZTM . I wasn't able to get my bobbin tension as loose as his (my bobbin screw fell out!), but I simply set it as loose as I could get it. That helped enormously.
I am wondering if you may have a bad bobbin case. Sometimes they get dropped and bent.
It took some experimenting with the bobbin winder to get it to wind bobbins correctly for me. Some of my first bobbins were not wound very well.
Are you a member of the Yahoo group HinterbergQuilters? If not, you might want to join (http://groups.yahoo.com ). There are quite a few experienced Voyager/Hinty quilters on that group who may be able to help once you get your machine back.
03-24-2014, 01:28 AM
#19
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 1
The same thing has happened to me. I have made quilt for my son, it has been a HUGE project - I couldn't believe when I actually finally finished it. But the quilting lines (straight line grid 4" gaps max) keep breaking. Did you, or has anyone, found a way to fix this? Should I add more quilting lines (it would mess up the design)? I thought of adding some stitch-in-the-ditch with invisible thread, would this help? I used Aurifil 50/2. I wanted to use thin thread as I am a beginner and didn't want to make more of a feature of my (wonky) quilting lines than necessary. I think this was my mistake. At the moment, I have unpicked and restitched several lines. Now, whenever I spot a break I fix it by handstitching, but I don't feel confident that these fixes will last.... Any help would be much appreciated. I seem to be unable to move on from this quilt, as every moment I get to sew I'm fixing the breaks and I want to sew other things.....
Thank you in advance.
Thank you in advance.
03-24-2014, 08:39 AM
#20
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Illinois
Posts: 9,018
I use signature on my longarm and never have had a prob with it......but, on any cotton threD, the darker the color the more dye is used and therefore if you thread is dark, it may be weaker....also when doing a diagonal line it is better not to go from top to bottom, but instead do a kind of peaks and valleys.......less stress on that line of stitching.....so I do WWWW across a row, then another connecting those WWWWWW across...... As far as binding who knows. But if you are using serger thread STOP and use regular as mentioned above not meant for regular sewing....jmho
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