Originally Posted by
Railroadersbrat
I change after every quilt, religiously. I also take a permanent marker and mark the top of the needle so that way I can keep track of my needles and if I need to make a fast repair on something, I know to grab the needles that are marked instead of a new one. The needle may not be sharp enough for my needs when I'm quilting, but it's still plenty sharp enough for a fast repair or another project that's not as big as a quilt. After a quilt, though, I'm breaking down my machine to clean and oil it, so it makes sense to me to put in a new needle then.
I'm also one that will take a second and dust out underneath the throat plate and around the race when I'm changing out bobbins. Although here lately, I have to stop what I'm doing about midway through a bobbin to clean everything out, the fuzz that's been collecting has been much more than usual. Not sure what's up with that
Have you changed your thread brand recently? I got a lot more lint when I was using cheaper thread (ahem Coats and Clark...I know, I know. That brand used to be good but they aren't anymore - I didn't know that until recently. Le sigh). I was pricing higher end threads (Aurifil and Mettler) and found some really good, affordable thread sets at Connecting Threads. Decided to take the plunge and get them, figuring they'd be ok for sewing other things if they didn't work for quilting. Not to mention they have a ton of different colors. I found I don't get nearly as much fuzz and have fewer problems with my machine and they're fine for quilting.
I use Aurifil and Mettler for really important quilts and the Connecting Threads thread for everything else now. Just wait for a sale to get another color set.