HELP eyelashes
 

Help please---I can't get rid of eyelashes. one tutorial says to lower the tension and your stitch length to zero. That didn't work. Put settings back to normal. Another says turning corners to fast. That's not it either. Don't know what to do. Thanks for any help

You are moving the quilt too fast and the machine is sewing too slow.

Try a new needle, my machine always plays up with a blunt needle

I agree, you are moving your hand much to fast for your machine. What size needle are you using? Do you need to change it?

Call me stupid, but what are eyelashes in relation to quilting? Haven't heard that term yet!

Image of "eyelashing"

[ATTACH=CONFIG]311671[/ATTACH]

I found this website that says the problem could be both speed and tension.

http://www.generations-quilt-pattern...eshooting.html

"Your problem may be either tension, speed or both.

"Eyelashing" is when your needle thread is pulled to the back of your quilt and is pulled to look just like eyelashes. In fact this is such a good name, for when it happens, you'll know exactly what it is.

Take a look at your quilting so far. Is the eyelashing only on the tight curves? If so, it is quite possible that as you stitch through curves, you unknowingly are increasing the speed of your hands and "whipping" around them. If this is the case, this "whipping" action is pulling on your needle thread and it shows up on the bottom of your quilt.

NOTE: My sewing machine can be set for different maximum speeds. For free motion quilting, I tend to set it at 60% of top speed. That way, once I've warmed up and am relaxed, I can put my foot pedal to the floor and just concern on moving my hands at an even rate...for curves and straight lines, I move my hands at the same speed. It takes a bit of getting used to. There are some shapes, like curves, that one naturally wants to "speed" around. But it leaves me with one less thing to think about while I'm free motion quilting.

Take a practice quilt sandwich made from leftovers from your quilt and do some curvy free motion, but this time pay close attention to the speed you are moving your hands as you go around the curves. Pay close attention to keeping an even speed around those curves. It'll take a bit of practice because you may be "un-learning" a habit and replacing it with another.



Now check for tension quality on both the top and the back. How does it look?

Loops on the back of the quilt mean the needle tension is too loose. Adjust it by increasing the number on your tension dial...a half to a whole number at a time...and then test again. Continue in this manner until you are satisfied.

If the bobbin thread shows on the top, the needle tension is too tight. Reduce the tension number on your machine, again slowly, and testing for each adjustment. Fine tune.

A couple of general suggestions:

• Replace your needle with a new one. Needles are so cheap and are the culprit of so many problems.
• If possible use the same thread in the needle and bobbin. This results in the fewest adjustments.
• Test, test, test. In the long run, testing on a practice sandwich saves time. You find the proper needle, threads and tension for your project before you start so there's no ripping. Take notes right on the practice sandwich and keep them for future reference."

I just got a new machine it's a brother CI6000...i think I'm not at home. Anyways that happened to me and I tried everything and then looked in the manual and found my issue, my machine is picky about thread. I use coats and clark all purpose to piece and on my old brother I used it to quilt small projects and quilts. The new machine it has to be 100% cotton for the FMQ. Have you made sure your thread matches your matieral. Cotton with cotton? Hope this helps..

When this happens on a longarm, it is often because the quilt sandwich is too tight. There must be some flexiblility in the fabric sandwich. If you are using a hoop of some kind, allow for some give in the fabric. It's better for the fabric to flex with your motions, than for the needle to try to do the flexing.

I have a Pfaff grand quilter and this happens on the bottom of the quilt sandwich if I forget to lower the presser foot.

Thanks, Peckish-that really explains it well. That is what was happening to me when stippling-I have always hand-quilted my quilts, but decided to make some small crafty-projects last Xmas (toaster covers, etc), and that was exactly what was happening to me! I fiddled and fiddled, but just couldn't figure what was wrong-IT WAS ME!! Thanks for that, now I might give it another try!!

You can also try increasing the tension for the top thread....I have to do that for my 6600 and it makes the eyelashing go away.

are you doing free motion quilting. i've never heard of eyelashes being encountered doing regular stitching.

I was FMQ-feed dogs down, and stippling

This is happening to me now. I'm quilting using my Embroidery machine and an embroidery design. The top looks great but I have eyelashes all over the back. I pulled out the bad spots and will probably just stitch the bad spots from the bottom, bury the ends, and remove the eyelashes.. Sheesh. So much extra work. ! I will change my needle and also slow my machine down.

That's what I've found. I speed up the sewing machine speed and slow down my movement and the world is back in place

I was having that problem a couple of weeks ago. Annette (Quilted Sunshine) said to get Gutermann thread (or another brand). She said you cannot get a good tension balance with Coats and Clark. I was already using Gutermann in the top and coats and Clark in the bottom. I bought the Gutermann thread at JoAnn's and finally got the tension balanced. It took a while. I kept changing the bobbin tension , then the top tension until it was balanced. I used a quilt mock up to keep testing it.

I have not yet conquered quilting with rulers, but I did get that problem solved.

bkay

I don't think the original poster is still here. Her post is over ten years old.

Wow! How do those old posts come back up?

bkay

It only takes one person to reply to it. Then it shows up on everyone's new posts lol

I attended a free motion boot camp a few years ago.
Recommended needle size should be 90/14 Microtex.
Instructor said, DO NOT TOUCH TENSION until you do the following. She said, most people are told to mess with their thread tension, her experience it is not tension issues.
Do a test quilt sandwich, sew a straight line only. If your tension is good, then the problem is, you are moving your hands too fast in relation to the speed of your sewing machine.. Either speed up your machine or slow down your hand movement. That should take care of your problem. It worked for me....slowed down around corners.
BEST WISHES. please let us know how you are doing with getting rid of eyelashes.