Free Motion Quilting Problem! Please help!
 

Hello!!!! My name is Dawn and I am a self taught quilter! I have been having problems with my free motion quilting presser feet. I have one with a spring and one for rulers. Whenever I attach either one of them and begin stitching, the needle goes through the fabric but does not make a stitch. The stitches are not be completed. Whenever I change to another presser foot like my 1/4 in presser foot, the machine stitches perfectly. I have no clue what is going on and any help will be much appreciated.

I have looked through my manual for troubleshooting. I have threaded my machine correctly. I have changed to new needles. I have lowered the feed dogs and set stitching to one which is the lowest. I have cleaned my machine out. I have changed thread. I have changed the presser foot tension. I bought the presser feet from Amazon and all the reviews said they were compatible with my machine and worked perfectly. My machine is a brother PQ1500SL. I have no clue what is happening!

Thank you for your time and help in advance! :D

Welcome to the QB from SE Michigan first of all! I have the Brothers 1500se. They are similar machines. I have been having trouble with the tension on my machine and have a similar problem right now. So for right now I have stopped trying to do anything. I even had t he machine services and use only Brother's parts. It is quite the quandary. One other problem I discovered was that my frame was not level and that makes a big difference. With all the things you have tried my next call would be to their tech support service. They were very helpful to me even though now I know it is in my setup.
Why it is not going for the beginning could have more to do with the " compatible " parts. I would try the ones made by Brothers only because it could be just a tiny bit difference and this could make the difference.
Again welcome to the QB and please just jump right in.

Are you remembering to put the pressure foot down onto the fabric?

Your presser foot may be too high off the fabric. If so, it won’t make a stitch. This is especially true of the floating foot used for ruler work. If you are using the Westalee foot, try setting it lower on the shank. If it’s your spring foot causing the problem try increasing the pressure on your presser foot by turning the knob on the top of the machine.

Rob

Thanks so much!

Are you quilting or sewing? If you're quilting, what size needle? I found when I was quilting, I needed to use a size 16 or 18 needle on that machine.

Yes I am! Thanks for your help!

This was the issue! I changed to a size 16 because I was using a 14. Thank you so much!!!

I always quilt with a size 16 needle or I have thread breakage.

Dawnstar, glad you found us. I hope you stick around and show us some of your work, we like pictures. Lots to read and learn on here, also, glad you issue got resolved too.