Free motion attempt gone wrong!
 

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I was so excited when I saw the front, then I turned out over and wanted to cry. What did I do wrong? Maybe the bobbin tension? [ATTACH=CONFIG]546996[/ATTACH]but I had already sewn today, it was a straight stitch but perfectly fine. Feed dogs were dropped. :(

I think you needed to tighten your top tension, perhaps also loosen your bobbin tension. The bobbin thread is not being pulled taut by the upper thread, which indicates top tension is too loose. It is worse on the loop (eyelashing), which can mean you were moving too fast also.

Trying slowing down, and my machine behaves better if the feed dogs are UP with the stitch length set to 0. Keep trying, you will get there :)

Each machine seems to have its own little quirks. After you make an adjustment, just stitch a little and see what it looks like before doing a whole area. I get the eyelashes too when I move the quilt too fast.

A good rule of thumb that helps me.... if the issue with stitches are on the bottom.... tweak the top tension. If the issue with stiches are on the top.... tweak the bobbin tension. Do very small tweaks at a time. Sometimes, I just have to walk away for a while to clear my head and the tension in me! ;-) You can do this!

I'm trying to figure out where to change the thread tension. Argh! On a Brother PC420PRW

On my Janome, I drop the feed dogs, and move the tension from auto to 6 - as suggested by my Janome dealer. Slow and steady, make sure the needle eye is appropriate for the thread, and RELAX.

It's the dial to the left of the area where you put your thread spool. Don't change it too much at once, or you may have a problem with your top thread breaking. On my PC420 I usually had to lower my top thread tension a little from the normal setting of 3 or 4, but since you are having the problem on the back side it looks to me like you need to raise your top thread tension. Try raising it just one or two small clicks at a time until you've got the worst of the eye lashing gone. Then you will want to practice speeding up the machine but slowing down your hands as you go around curves.

Rob

Thank you, I see it now. I'll let you know if that helps.

That was the problem, but I had to set the tension to almost 7. Now I need to practice because I don't like the teeny stitches. ..

The PC420PRW has a speed controller on the front---it's a sliding lever. You might want to try putting it toward the middle. That has the effect of making it so you can't inadvertently go too fast (causing teeny stitches). It also will help you find the "sweet spot" that is where you are working in time with the machine. You'll still use your foot pedal to speed up and slow down your machine as you FMQ, but the slider speed control sets the upper limit and the benefit is that you can concentrate on getting used to the hand motions without having to worry so much about what your foot is doing. You'll learn to recognize the sound the machine makes when you and it are working well together.


As you do more FMQ, try lowering that top tension some, I'm thinking that with it set at 7 you are likely to have thread breakage unless you're using a fairly thick and strong thread.

To check your tension, look at the back of your sandwich at places where you were fmqing straight lines--if you see the top thread poking through so that the bobbin thread is just laying along the surface of the backside rather than being pulled in, then you need to tighten your top tension. If you are seeing some eye lashing on curved areas but the straight areas look okay then the problem is more likely to be that you were moving your hands too fast for the machine to keep up as you went around the curves--in that case the solution is to slow down your hands, or speed up your machine or slow down your hands and speed up your machine.

If you find that you can't lower the top tension without getting more of the same tension problems, it may be time to invest in a 2nd bobbin case that you can dedicate to FMQ. That way you can loosen the tension on the bobbin case without having to re-tighten it when you want to do regular sewing.

Also, if you get tired of making quilt sandwiches to practice on I'm a big fan of using two pieces of felt sandwiched together. I keep the cheap craft store felt on hand for when I'm working out a new design or just feel like doodling. You don't need to put batting between them, just grab two pieces and go.

Rob

This is not a club with one member. You get bonus points for showing. I remember exactly how excited I was until I looked at the underside! :shock:

The stitches don't look tiny in the photo. One thing that I do to help is to create a visual reference. I create a micro sandwich with part of a jelly roll strip and set my stitch length to 3mm with my walking foot. I keep that next to my machine as a reference for what a 3mm stitch looks like. It also helps -- at least a first -- to try a larger design & to draw it out on my fabric (for practice sandwiches you can even just use a Sharpie -- I would do that & then keep pulling out my stitches so I could reuse the sandwich). It also helps to practice on a 1/2yd piece of fabric so I have something to hold onto & can do a wider stitch pattern.

Here's the best beginner tutorial I know of for stippling: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...-wiggly-u.html
I like that Leah Day had her husband try to learn quilting that year & she posts all of his attempts. He is now pretty good in his own right, but here was his first attempt (note the itty bitty stitches):
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...-u-shapes.html

You're doing great! Just keep practicing. As other have said, if you can slow down your machine speed with a dial/button/slider, do that. If you have an old machine like my 1970's Singer, I taped a tiny wedge of cardboard on the back of my foot pedal so I wasn't able to fully depress the pedal. I also quilt barefoot. The other thing that helped me control the pedal better was to create a fake pedal for my left foot -- also good ergonomics -- using a book & a doorstop. But it's all just a matter of practice & you're off to a great start! :thumbup:

,

thanks for some great tips!

From your photo it looks like you might have accidentally left the presser foot up when you sewed that. No tension on the top thread at all....

Grame/pat, did you stick with it? I'm pretty sure that fmq is not for me. I figured out the tension thing I think! But then when I got into a groove with tempo between moving my hands and machine speed, I found that I kept bumping my hands into the presser foot. So I decided to put a regular sized quilt under the needle to see how that would be, and that made up my mind to sick to straight lines! (But I hate giving up)

I'm a little confused. My bobbin is a drop-in, no bobbin case. Am I missing something?

The loose tension was the underside. My machine doesn't work if the presser foot is not lowered.

When you practise after the tweaks use a larger than normal sandwich so you can practise going in circles or feathers or what ever pattern you are using. The curves show a speed change as well as tweaks.

The good news is, that those stitches will be super easy to remove. Clip every 5-7 stitches and just pull from the front. Always look for the silver lining. Learning from your mistakes, almost makes the struggles worth it. Good luck with your next attempt. I'm sure it will be lots better. Shine and sparkle all day today!

Whenever I changed thread, I always check out the tension on a test sandwich. If my Bernina did this, which it does occasionally do, I just take the top thread off and then carefully re-threaded it. Always test out before you start quilting. It may take a little extra time, but then you know for sure that you won't need Mr Ripper. :)

I remember how I felt when I saw this on the backside of my quilt and it was from a quilt shop that did machine quilting! Her excuse was she changed bobbins and didn't check the underneath afterwards. She was very casual about it, said it happens all the time, no big deal and she was upset that I was mad at her not that she messed up. It took me a long time to trust any other LA.

I always have a bobbin genie under my bobbin. That stops the bobbin from spinning when you go around corners fast.

I use bobbin genies for all sewing. I never have bird nests.

If your tension is ok on straight stitching, THEN DON'T MESS WITH YOUR TENSION. When you get "eyelashes", you are moving too fast, so either slow down with your hand movement or speed up your machine. You are moving faster than your machine can lock the stitches. Also, you need to be using a 90/14 topstitch needle. It has a larger eye and makes a little larger hole, so your threads lock better. DID I SAY, DON'T MESS WITH THE TENSION....Remember, if you tension is OK straight stitching....your tension is fine. These are all things I learned in a Free Motion Bootcamp. That was fun! Best wishes...and don't fret, you will get there. Try some practice pieces. You will do fine.

Please don't give up! I had stitches like that when I started-mine were from moving the fabric too fast. I was watching YouTube videos, and did not realize most of the videos were "sped up" and narrated....I thought I was supposed to put my petal to the metal! When I slowed WAY down, my stitches improved. And be sure that your quilt sandwich is never caught on a corner of your machine bed-that makes for tiny stitches in my experience. And, yes, when you first try to FMQ a "real" quilt, it feels much different than on a practice sample. Just be sure to puddle up the small area under your needle and relax and enjoy! You have gotten some great tips here....now go practice! :)

Edit:one other thing that really helped me was quilting gloves. I purchased Machingers, wore them out, and now I use gardening gloves-anything that has some grip on the fingertips.

With FMQ you just quilt a small area, stop the machine, then re-position your hands. The number I hear most often is it takes 8 hours of practice to feel somewhat comfortable with FMQ. I didn't have much money for fabric so I re-did that practice sandwich maybe 7-8x, grabbed some old flannel pj's that I cut up to make a changing pad for my nephew that gave me some more practice & then went to work on my niece's crib quilt. That first quilt was a lot of work, but by the time I finished it, I felt pretty comfortable with FMQ. There's nothing wrong with straight line stitching -- it truly is beautiful in its own right. But if you can get in the practice (an hour a day for a week, or 20 minutes a day for 21 days, or one marathon weekend), I promise it really does get easier. :)

The best advise being given is to take a picture of your current settings before you start adjusting. You think you will remember, but after playing for awhile, it will all be jumbled. But, I agree with the others in try slowing down just a tad.

[QUOTE=kellyer21;7514901]I'm a little confused. My bobbin is a drop-in, no bobbin case. Am I missing something?[/QUOTE


when you open the bobbin compartment to drop your bobbin in there is a black dish like thing you drop it into. That is the equivalent of a bobbin case. You need to remove it periodically to clean the lint out that gets packed under it or you will start to have all kinds of problems. There are a couple of pages toward the very end of your manual that show how to remove it and also how to put it back in correctly.

When you remove it you'll see that there are two screws on the side. One has a Phillips head and is probably painted green. The other has a slotted head. At the moment I can't remember which one it is that you use to Chang ether tension. But that is what I was talking about when I mentioned buying a second bobbin case. But that's not something you need to worry with at the moment.


Rob

Don't give up! Your first piece looked fine except for the tension issue and you got that fixed. It just takes practice. Soon you'll get into a rhythm and even though you do have to stop to reposition your hands and the quilt you'll find that it is not a big deal. The joy of FMQ sit down style is that you can do just about any size design you want once you get the hang of it.

Rob

Right, but it was the top thread, not the bobbin thread. But, as you said your machine wouldn't go if the presser foot was up, so my guess had to be wrong. My second guess would be that something was amiss in the threading. I'd take all the thread out, clean all the tension discs and then re-thread.

This was my first idea. When I first saw what happened, I expected that the machine was not threaded correctly. It seemed as though the thread was going through the tension disks.

I always have a sandwich made from scraps and check the tension when I start and when I change bobbins. It saves a lot of time doing the frog stitch.

Usually if I rethread it corrects it. This happened to me a couple times. I left it and washing corrects most of that issue. It happened on a row while doing a panto. I didn't have time to pick it out.

I had the exact thing happen with my Janome 6000. I'd had never had a problem like that before and have machine quilted quite a bit. I assumed it was my machine and it was time to bring it in for it's yearly check. They did not fine anything wrong and said it was fine and it has not done it since. The positive: it is fairly easy to remove since it is a loose stitch and I was only 1/4 into a baby quilt.

woody, same here. I do lots better with feed dogs up and pressure on the foot as low as it can go. If I put the feed dogs down, wham.. too tight.

I've gone to hand quilting! I've not given up but the stress & pressure I was putting on myself was not good. I did just finish a SITD project & I did a straight line motion quilting (lots of turns) but FMQ is hard for me because I can't keep the big picture in focus & I keep stopping and starting to decide where to go next. Even marking with blue pen or using glad stick wrap with pattern drawn on it(awful, stuck in every stitch), I decided to walk away from FMQ for now.

I'm sure I haven't had 8 hrs of practice so that's probably what I need to try. Lots of good tips here but for free motion stuff I think I'll visit my favorite long armer! Me & my walking foot will stick to the straight & narrow! :thumbup:

I have seen that very problem on my own work in the beginning of trying to FMQ on my domestic machine. It was causing me a lot of upsetment and frustration as I had been practising, practising, practising on small practice pieces and felt that it was good enough to try doing it on a quilt.

Off I went the top was good and the bottom just as you are showing. After spending 4 hours of pulling it out and being very upset about the whole thing I went to bed and suddenly woke up around 2 am remembering that I had read about a problem like this on the "net". I got up very early and onto the "net to google" around and sure enough I found what I had read.

It was all about the weight of the quilt dragging down so in order to counteract this problem I turned my machine to the side and put a lot of books on either side of the machine to bring it up even to the bottom of the machine so that the quilt was level and there was no weight on either side - going into the machine and coming out of the machine - to drag down.

The moment of truth was about to happen as I sat there all nervous, anxious and sweating to try out my hideous contraption and out came a perfect result. I hope this helps and I will try and find a photo of what I did so you can see what worked for me.

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