I have been working on FMQ off and on for a while - still consider myself a beginner. What I found I was doing on my machine was leaning on the knee pedal to lift the foot while continuing to sew. That really causes big eyelashes. Now I take off the knee attachment when I'm quilting, and I'm having much more success on that end of it. Still struggling with other issues like even stitching, etc.- but making progress!

This is going to sound really weird but I have a Pfaff and my older bobins that are smooth will cause eye lashes while the newer bobins with an indent work great. Also try rethreading your machine if it is designed to use two threads on one side for the take up it may work better.

Loose stitches that look "sort of" like eyelashes!

Here is a photo of what eyelashes look like. You can click on the photo to get an enlargement. Eyelashes can occur on either the top or bottom of a quilt, and are more common on circles.
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...-or-speed.html

When do we get to see a picture of the quilt???

Way to go!

Glad it worked out for you. It can be so frustrating, so I'm so glad you didn't give up. Cheers to you.

I quilt on a longarm, but every time I change my bobbin, I test my tension on a muslin sandwich I keep just for this purpose. Even using prewound bobbins, I do this. I also use a TOWA gauge with every bobbin and that makes a huge difference. Good for you for getting that FMQ going on your DSM!!