I am desperate for help now while free motioning. I thought I'd just throw together a really Springy tulip wallhanging. When it was time to do FM, I broke so many needles I'm embarrassed to give you a count.
I've tried everything. I see that my needle hits the sole plate after just a few stitches. I tried everything. Chgd needles, threaded & rethreaded. I really slowed down on moving my quilt sandwich since it looked like I might be pulling it too hard & bending the needle. I can straight stitch without problems. What should I do about my sole plate? I've FM in the past & didn't have this trouble.
Please help !!!

that sounds really weird, is the needle put in correctly. I once put one in with the flat spot to the front and had alot of trouble.

My machine won't let a needle go in backwards. I had considered that. Yes, it is weird.

What machine do you have?

Can you tell if the needle is getting bent, and that is why the needle starts hitting the sole plate? That's the only reason I can think of for needle to break so often. Could it be that the needle is too fine? A bigger needle will not bend as easily.

Since you have ruled out all the mechanical questions, I have a couple of questions for you. Have you done a lot of FM quilting before or is this one of your first attempts? Do you have the parts of the quilt not under the needle sufficiently supported to avoid drag on your needle? I encountered exactly your problem. I brought my machine and project down the our open night at the LQS, and had one of the experienced ladies watch me. It turns out I was moving the quilt too fast for the speed of the machine/needle. I spent many more hours after that just practicing to get the rhythm just right. And, I still do a little bit of "practice" before quilting a new project just to get that timing back. The more I'm doing it, the more it really is like riding a bike.

Try using a heavier duty needle, like one for sewing denim and see if that helps :D:D:D

First be sure the machine is set for straight stitching, not zigzag, and that the needle position is centered over the hole in the plate. Try sewing without fabric and see if the needle still hits the plate after a few stitches. If it does, it has nothing to do with your moving the fabric too fast, and it might be time to call the sewing machine repair place. Otherwise, if your needle is hitting the sole plate, then it must be bending, which means the fabric is exerting sideways force on it. A heavier needle should help.

Sounds like you are moving the quilt too fast. Try slowing it down a bit. It takes quite a bit of practice to get the hang of it. Keep trying!

Sometimes needle breakage is tied up to the bobbin tension. The bobbin requires a different tension for FMQ than it does for regular sewing, that's why a lot of people buy a separate case for the bobbin to be used only for FMQ. Especially helpful if you don't have a machine dedicated solely to FMQ.

I think you may need a needle with a larger eye, loosen the tension a tad.

Are you using Quilting Needles?

If you are able to sew a few stitches before it hits the sole plate. It sounds like it would be the pressure you are putting on the free motion.
If the thread can't get through the eye as fast as you are moving, it will pull the thread tight and you will bend the needle just enough to hit the plate.
Keep trying
Syl

I've never changed my bobbin tension for FMQ. Couldn't use a different bobbin case in my machine anyways because it is a drop in bobbin. :lol:

I found that when the needles were breaking while doing FM quilting is was because I was not running the machine fast enough. The faster the maching is going then the faster you can move the fabric with out needle breaks. Anyway, this has been my experience. Hope this helps!

My needles are 80s. My LQS now has bulk Schmetz needles 100 for $50 so that's what I'm using.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I've been doing FM since last summer & have done sev. pcs. This pc. is a sm. wallhanging so I'm not sure there was much drag but I will pay more attention to that. I slowed down my stitching & got long stitches but at least I got it done.
I've been using Schmetz 80 needles. They do seem to bend a lot but I don't know how to correct that since they are the same I would buy at an LQS. My LQS

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I've been doing FM since last summer & have done sev. pcs. This pc. is a sm. wallhanging so I'm not sure there was much drag but I will pay more attention to that. I slowed down my stitching & got long stitches but at least I got it done.
I've been using Schmetz 80 needles. They do seem to bend a lot but I don't know how to correct that since they are the same I would buy at an LQS. My LQS now carries Schmetz needles in bulk. (100 for $50).
I'm also finishing a quilt sandwich but am just doing SID. I'm afraid to do FM again right now.
Here is a pix of the wallhanging I was working on. Thanks again for your help.

You can still remove the bobbin case on a drop in bobbin. Remove the throat plate and it pulls right out, the tension screw is in the very front. If you have not done that in the past, there may be a lot of debris under the case that needs to be cleaned out.

Two years ago my needles kept breaking so I brought it in to be serviced. He found my needle was bent just enough that it would hit the plate. I bought new needles from him and it worked great. What I discovered when I got home was that the pkg of needles I had gotten at JoAnn's were a bad batch :cry:

While having my needle breaking problem, I went through a new pkg. of needles from Wal Mart. Then I started on the new ones I had bought in bulk from the LQS.

Sounds to me you may be pulling the quilt sandwich a little too much. I found myself doing this once in a while and I have FMQd lots and lots of quilts. Maybe you were a little uptight. Pretty wallhanging.

After breaking so many needles you bet I was uptight. LOL
I just need to go try again after all of these suggestions. My only conclusion was I must be putting too much pressure on it but I guess I'll just go try again.

Since you have broken needles and hit the sole plate a number of times, your machine probably needs to be timed. This will require a trip to your sewing machine repair shop. I had that happen when going over a very large seam and part of the needle was broken off on the inside. It sewed OK for awhile, then began hitting the sole plate. I took it in and he re-timed it (and removed the little piece of needle) and it works great now! Good luck!

I didn't know about the timing thing. I just sewed a binding on a quilt & had no prob. with that. It must be the way I'm FMing. I'd better get it figured out since needles aren't free.

I too have problems of needles breaking but all the above info is good. I usually go thru two needles a quilt, anyone of the reasons above would be the explanation.

I changed my needle to a quilting needle, and no more breaking. True, if you move your hands and material to fast, it will catch and boom, broken needle!

Try to eliminate drag on the needle by having a big flat table to support you quilt whilst you are quilting and use nothing lighter than a 90/14 needle to quilt with.If you can get a sole plate that is designed for straight stitching (with a single hole in it) it can be a help as well. You will get a better stitch as the embroidery plates have a bit more 'give' than the single stitch plates.As others have mentioned here, it is good to have a practice sandwich that you can use for about 10 minutes before you start on your quilt each time. It will loosen you up and get you into the rhythm.Also, if you are doing a lot of quilting you should change the needle often. It is already too blunt when you can hear it popping when it goes into the material.Good luck with your project

You didn't say what machine you have but I can totally sympathize with you. I had this happen to me on a Pfaff Creative Vision. I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. I finally found out that I was using the wrong free motion foot. I was using the one for the Pfaff 2170. The two feet looked exactly the same. Once I switched to the new creative vision free motion quilting foot I have not had a problem. No needle breakage at all. I couldn't believe the difference. Make sure you are using the right foot for your machine. Hope this helps.

by now you've probably finished, but I agree about the heavier needle. Not sure of the number becauses I keep my FMQ needles in a separate needle case. When you're moving the fabric (along with batting) it puts a lot more stress on the needle. Try that.

This was my thought. I just experienced a similar problem and it was tension related.

Your thread might be getting hung up somewhere along the line. Is it caught in the slit to hold the thread end on the spool or wrapped around the spool spindle? That has happened to me and caused the needles to break. You might need to get a separate spool holder that sits beside your machine with the tall rod.

Were you trying to use a fancy stitch in the machine. With FM you can only use a straight stitch and you make it fancy. -- J.

Do you have the wrong needle plate on your machine?

My last FMQ I broke several needles until I noticed that every time it broke I was crossing a thick seam. As the foot hopped over the seam it would catch a little and on the next hop it would let go and bend/break the needle.

I am glad you asked that question. I had same problem last week while FM. I was so frustrated. I have read great suggestions and will take them into consideration next time. Your project did come out beautifully though.

Are you pulling a lot? That will do it. Otherwise, no suggestions. Good luck.

That's really pretty. Glad you got it done. Hope you have better luck with the next one. I haven't had the problem you had, but I have a Pfaff with a drop in bobbin so I decided to take a look and see if the tension could be adjusted. Sure enough, there is a really tiny adjusting screw on the side of the bobbin case. You have to take the bobbin case out of the machine and look really closely to see it. Now I know where it is in case I need to adjust my bobbin tension.

I have a Viking Platinum. I'm using a free motion foot. Feed dogs are down. My needles are 80s which might also be a prob. One thing different was I used a little basting spray.
I sure appreciate everybody's suggestions. I will make a few chgs. now to see if that helps.

Thank you all for your help.

Very cute tulips! I had some of the same problem and the repair guy said to use jean needles because the regular ones have too much give. So far so good!

It is possible that somewhere your thread is getting caught, maybe on the spool itself, this causes the needle to be pulled back & break. Been there, done that
Maire

If you do find that you have to sew more slowly, listening to very slow music seems to help.

know this is an older post, but a size 80/12 needle is too weak to use for FM quilting. Go to a 110/18 & you will have much better results (Jeans needle)
Marge