Originally Posted by
wishfulthinking
I know I said I was going to iron, but I walked into my sewing room, looked at those hateful white shirts and sat right back down at my machine. I think for now, I have it quilting okay. Turns out I didn't have in the needle I thought I did and that appears to have caused the skipping and thread shredding I was getting. My top stitches look pretty good. The back isn't great but it's brown with brown thread and you can't really see it. I'm hoping it will all even out in the wash, so to speak.
My goodness, there's so many things that have to work together for fmq it's a wonder anyone can do it! Needles, threads, top & bottom tension, speed, fabrics & on & on. But a lot of people do amazing work right here on this board, so I will keep trying. Thanks to all who've commented. Tammi, I feel like you're my new best friend! You've been so generous with your time, suggestions and knowlege & I really thank you. You asked how the machine is doing for normal piecing. I don't know yet as I haven't done any piecing on it since it came back from the shop. I'll give it a go after/if I finish quilting this.
I am told that washing hides a multitude of sins. Most of my sins apparently are bigger than that.
All of the little fiddly parts of setting up for FMQ are usually not an issue. Most of the time we can just go for it. The problem happens when one of the things is intolerable to a machine, then there's troubleshooting. I don't see any reason you won't get this figured out. I'm happy to help. So many people have helped me here, I'm just paying it forward.
The reason I asked about piecing is that it will show a fundamental problem quicker than a sandwich. The sammie will take up and hide a bit of a tension issue because of bulk that the piecing won't.
I totally want to see what you're quilting after this too.