Originally Posted by
Knitette
That was until I tried to LA with Aurifil (yes - Aurifil!) on my LQS Gammill. Snap, snap, snap.
I took a class with a well known LA quilter. He said that Aurifil sent him likely thousands of $$ worth of thread, because he'd said he could quilt with it. He was supposed to do demos at one of the large quilt shows, etc. In the end, he was -almost- able to quilt with it, and managed to get it down on only a break or two (a pass? a quilt? I can't recall exactly...) He didn't end up doing the talks. There are better threads for this sort of stitching. The thing I find with Aurifil is that even on a domestic, it's easy to break.
That said, Gammil machines can be extra hard on thread because of all of the guides and multiple tensioners (!?!) the upper thread goes through.
http://www.superiorthreads.com/educa...itive-gammill/
That same LA'er said that there's a thread that Superior makes that was developed especially for Gammil machines, but of course the rest of us can use it too. I'll look it up in my notes if anyone wants to know what it was.
Originally Posted by
cminor
Its a Singer Quantium Stylist 9960. ....
I am using overlock thread which seems linty.
FMQ does take some time to get the hang of, and machines that use horizontal bobbins can be more challenging to get "just right". Try some of Jamie Wallen's tricks for setting up the tension in this video (it's for Long Arm machines, but the principles are the same. You may have to look at your manual for where the bobbin tension is adjusted. I know where, but I would be hard pressed to explain it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1mRhcquZTM
You need to be able to "dance" with your machine. You have to be in time with it, or "things" happen.
Overlock thread is extremely thin. It will be very unforgiving. Compare it to a Sew-All thread or any 50wt that you have. You'll see how thin it is. I wouldn't use it for FMQ, especially not while learning. I did use it while I was learning to frame quilt on my "old" Juki setup, but it broke a lot. A Lot A lot. As soon as I changed to an appropriate thread, the breakages stopped happening.
Originally Posted by
BellaBoo
I use Glide thread, Superior's Organ titanium topstitch needle size 80/12 and Glide Delights prefilled magna bobbins with a Bobbin Genie.
Glide is an excellent thread, especially for beginners to FMQ! It's very forgiving, and poly will stretch a tiny bit before it breaks, instead of snapping right away like cotton does. One particular LA company suggests it for all beginners, and the rental shop here uses it on all the rentals.
I was under the impression that with a magnaglide bobbin, the bobbin Genie would be redundant, or possibly even detrimental (the magnet couldn't do it's job of controlling backlash (
http://www.bobbincentral.com/quiltin...ab-container-1) if it was separated from the metal by the plastic "Washer", but you find this combo works?
ETA: I don't think the magnaglide bobbins would be useful to you cminor. The Quantum has a plastic bobbin case... the magnet can't do its work without metal to hang onto.