Can anyone help?
 

I need to finish this quilt by the 15th, a bricks and mortar comfy quilt. I have it all pieced and sandwiched with no problems at all, but for some reason my Viking Sapphire 850 !Quilt - WON'T. The thread is breaking about every 8 inches or so, and I am breaking needles like mad. Changed thread, reset tensions, shut her off and cleaned her meticulously, changed needles and even went to rayon thread. Anyone have any additional suggestions. I really do want to finish this quilt. Oh, and the batting is one layer of Angel Soft. Not too heavy for the machine, I have used it before. Please, Please HELP

I wouldn't recommend rayon thread as it is much more likely to wear badly.

It's important to know whether you are trying to do free-motion quilting or straight line quilting with a walking foot. If you are using a walking foot, the problem could actually be the walking foot. They do go bad eventually. If you are FMQing, then I have to wonder if you have a bad batch of needles. Try a needle from a different packet, and also try a bigger needle. If you are breaking needles with FMQ, then it's highly likely either that the thread tension is way too tight or the needle is too small for the thread. In both cases (and also if you are moving the quilt too fast in relation to speed), this will cause the needle to flex near the point and break.

Did you spray baste it? I've had that happen with certain brands or spraying to heavily.

What type of thread are you using?? Did you change the needle? This always happens to me when I am on a deadline. So now I try my best to avoid them like the plague. Good Luck.

All the above are good things to check, but do you also have it set on medium weave? The buttons second row from bottom in front on right? What type backing are you using? You might want to set it to heavy weave if you are using flannel or something heavier than quilting cotton. I had a quilt that I used a flannel from a major manufacturer for the backing. My Viking let me know it did not like it! Of course, the machine was new at that time, but I have used thinner flannel since. Could have been operator error!
Do you have it set to FMQ in menu? Do a quick check list using the manual.
One thing I remember doing, was when I threaded the machine, I did not go through the silver clip, which is the first thing you run the thread through. On MY directions, it says if horizontal, to go through the clip, if vertical, don't go through it. That helped a little. You might try both ways. Hope you find the trick to make it work! I know how frustrating it is when it gets picky!!

Broken needles make me question whether it might be an issue with the timing belt. If you've tried re-threading with a different thread & used new needles (maybe a different size) & are doing something you've stitched out previously without problems, I'd take it in for service. I don't know for sure that's what the problem is, but that's what it was when my Singer has those issues.

Rayon thread -- not a good choice for quilting. Cotton or polyester, better choices. Needle the correct size for the weight of the thread, I use Sharps for quilting most often. Using same thread top & bottom? ( recommended). Walking or hopping foot? Don't pull against the speed of the machine. Put together a couple practice sandwiches and try things until you work out the problems before trying your quilt.

Also, if the thread is on the vertical spool, then maybe try using it from the horizontal one. When I don't pay close enough attention, sometimes the thread ends up winding itself under the thread spool and snaps. Hope you can get it figured out so you can enjoy your quilting time.

If you are free-motion quilting perhaps you are moving the fabric too fast, that will cause needles and thread to break. Try slowing down.

Could be a burr on the hook or needle plate. Or could be the timing is a bit off. If you could take off the needle plate, turn the handwheel to see where the needle is going. Then you could see how close the needle is to the hook as it passes -- maybe the hook is too close to the needle, and cutting the thread or breaking the needles. But those needle plates aren't very consumer friendly. Might need to take it to the shop.

Are you using a spool? Could it be catching on the little notch that you secure the end into? This has happend to me MANY times before...Now I usually check as I am threading from those spools.

Also sounds like something is too tight..snapping to me means its getting caught on something, or tensions need to be backed off a bit-even if your stitches look good to the eye. Deep breaths! Panicking does not help matters as your machine can 'sense' that!

Don't know if this will help, but the project I just finished was breaking needles until I lengthened the stitch and then I sailed through to the end. Why? I have no idea, but it worked and that was what I needed. I wish you the very best as I know what it is like to be up against a deadline with a cranky machine.

Tank you all for the wonderful suggestions and responses. I finally took her in to my service Guru and he found a tiny little piece of thread caught up in the tension wheel. Got that out, adjusted a little here and there and now I am nearly finished with this little quilt. I also did not have the needle seated properly so that of course was the cause of needle breakage. It seems no matter how long we have been quilting, there will come that day that nothing seems to go right. I am happy to report that day has now come and gone and I am back into getting Christmas projects finished up. Hopefully, when my daughter arrives from Fl. Wednesday, she can show me how to connect my phone to the computer so I can post pics. Thanx again to all of you wonderful gals and guys that ried to help out.