DSM vs longarm
 

Is it reasonable to expect FMQ on a domestic machine to look as good as quilting on a longarm? Over the years that I have been quilting on my 1008 Bernina mechanical I have never been able to get the stitches to look as good as I expected. I don't mean the pattern -- I mean the quality of each individual stitch. They're "good enough" and yet, even as my skills grow, they just aren't the quality that I would like to see. Washing the quilt after it's finished does seem to help a bit, as the fabric and batting shrink a bit around the stitches. Still . . . am I being unrealistic?

I don't think a long arm magically makes quilting stitches perfect. I don't own a long arm, but I know there are simple long arms that are only manually operated, with no stitch regulator, and than there are the nice long arms with the stitch regulator. I might be wrong, I would imagine that would make a huge difference.

I only quilt on my vintage domestic sewing machines. I try my best to make my stitches perfect, but I don't hold my own standards up to a computerized long arm. That is unrealistic to me.

When I quilted on my Bernina computerized DSM my stitches were as uneven as well. Now I have a simple LA with a stitch regulator and that has made all the difference. I still have to guide the machine, but yes stitches are much more even. To compare the 2 processes I find it is easier for me to guide the machine than to guide the fabric.

The stitch regulator does make all the difference. Even as a novice quilter, my stitches came out perfectly consistent with the stitch regulator.

I'm not sure what you mean by the quality of the stitch. If you mean whether the stitches are all of even length, then you can do that much better when you have stitch regulation. Only the Bernina offers true stitch regulation on a DSM, and it is not perfect. The closest to perfection IMHO is the Lightning Stitch on the Innova longarm.

If you are talking about tension, that is something that can be adjusted on both DSM and longarm. If all the components of the machine are in good condition, you should be able to achieve really good tension on either one.

There is another possibility, and that is the "straightness" of the stitch. The old machines without zigzag capability make beautifully straight lines of stitching. Many DSM's that allow you to control the stitch width do not give stitches that look truly straight. Of course if you're quilting curves, you're not looking for a straight stitch.

Can you show an example of the type of stitching problem you're having? That would really help.

My difficulty is with the tension, I think. The bobbin thread in places looks as if it is just a straight thread being held in place by the top stitches coming through the quilt. Wish I could post a pic -- my son isn't here and he would have to help me with that. This is why we had kids, right? I have fiddled and fiddled with the tension, both top and bottom, and cannot seem to completely resolve this, though in some places it looks fine. The problem seems to be erratic.

I misunderstood your original post, Synnove. I thought you were referring to stitch length and consistency which only practice can really achieve, not tension. Yes, a perfect tension theoretically should be able to be done on a domestic machine. Have you had you sewing machine serviced? It might just need a good clean and spa day.

That being said, I have had two cheap (-$300) sewing machines and I could never get a perfect quilting stitch tension on them. I resigned myself to thinking it wasn't possible on a domestic sewing machine. Then I switched all my sewing to solely vintage machines and I have never had that problem since.

Thanks for clarifying. This article has a checklist for addressing tension problems - https://blog.treasurie.com/sewing-machine-tension/. There are also lots of other articles and videos online. There are so many things that can cause bad tension that it's really difficult to diagnose, which is why having a checklist helps. Good luck!

Sometimes tension can be the specific machine. I had one DSM that did really good except in one direction. I could go in about 330 deg and then in that one 30 deg triangle (would be like moving towards the 1 - 2 positions on a clock face with the needle at the center) , the tension would be bad and it would snap the thread quite often.

I've also done quilt a bit on several vintage machines, and found I had much less tension problems on straight stitch machines, maybe it is because of how the hook/timing need to be to catch the thread whether the needle is to the left or to the right of center. Though if you have a vintage machine that both the needle and the bobbin case swing, then that is not an issue.

You also may want to try different feet. Most of my vintage machines did much better with a hopping foot, but some did better with a floating foot.