the back of one of their machine quilts? I'm playing with machine quilting and while its gotten better I don't think my tension is right yet...or something isn't. I don't have loops anymore but I think it would be very easy to just pull stitches out. I just need to see how one should look so I can know what i need to do next to get mine better. Thanks!

I don't know if the stitches show very well, hope it is enough to help you out.

ok that confirms what I thought of mine then....I have too much of the bobbin thread showing.....its like a straight line with loops of the top thread on it..

That usually means the top tension needs to be tighter (and/or the bobbin tension needs to be looser).

With quilting as with sewing, the top and bottom threads should lock in the middle of the stitch. Usually there are tiny dots of bobbin thread showing on the top, and tiny dots of top thread showing on the bottom. (Ideally both of these dots are buried inside the quilt sandwich, but that is not always possible.)

The easiest way to check your tension is to run you machine with the widest zigzag stitch possible. A zigzag will show up a tension problem more clearly than a straight stitch. Once you have the zigzag stitch looking good, switch to a straight stitch and check that. It's good to make up a practice quilt sandwich swatch for adjusting tension before you work on the real quilt.

Make sure your machine is threaded properly first. Sometimes it's just a matter of either the top or bobbin thread not in a tension disc.

thats very nice

Too true!!! Cannot tell you how many times I've muttered about Zoe when I was the problem as I had not threaded it correctly or hadn't checked the threading to see if that was the issue.

Ideally the top thread and the bobbin thread should loop right in the middle of the batting but it's hard to get the tension perfect. I would err on the side of having the top thread show on the bottom a bit since nobody will see it.

Yeah!!! I agree with this. The back, is, afterall, the back. If you can't have it perfect, err to the back. :D