Originally Posted by
mom2boyz
I'm glad to see this thread as I am still so very hazy about thread and needles. One quilt teacher said to only use cotton thread as she had seen seams just pop when she used poly. What really has me concerned is that our local Bernina dealer said DO NOT use thread by Connecting Threads (there is a certain brand by them that I can't think of right now) as it has a coating on it and he can tell when he cleans the machines and charges $20 extra for scraping the coating off. Come to find out, this is exactly the thread that my quilting teacher uses. The Bernina dealer is very opinionated and thinks he knows best about a lot of things but- does he know best about this?
I found this post most interesting. The only coated thread is HAND QUILTING THREAD. I have used thread from CONNECTING THREADS a lot (because she has some really good sales!) and have NEVER had a problem with it. Some people don't know this but the woman that owns and operates CONNECTING THREADS is a longarm quilter! Actually her quilting is so beautiful I prefer to call her a longarm artist. I met her on another forum many years ago, long before she started CONNECTING THREADS. I do support her business as much as possible because she has done very diligent research and a lot of her products are MADE IN THE USA!!!!!!!!
Now if that tech is "scraping the coating off", then I don't think I would be using him as a tech! Does gunk get built up in the tension disks? If the owner doesn't do proper cleaning, yep it does. Where does the gunk come from? EVERYWHERE! Moisture from our hands, dust and humidity in the air, the moisture from our breathing at the machine, just about anywhere that you have not imagined!
Cleaning the tension disks is fairly easy. Get UNWAXED DENTAL TAPE, the tape not floss. Cut off a length of tape that you can handle easily. Mine is about 36" long. Tie knots in the tape about every 1 to 2 inches apart. Not big knots, just one tie will do. During your regular cleaning routine, "floss" the knotted tape thru your tension disks a few times. Voila, you have a clean path thru the tension disks! I learned this trick in a machine maintenance class taught by a highly qualified Pfaff tech. BTW, the best "tool" to use when cleaning lint from your machine is......believe it or not.....CHENILLE PIPE CLEANERS. Yep, the ones you get in the kids crafts. Super cheap and they do a fantastic job of getting out lint in the places a brush can not go!