Skipping stitches
 

I'm so frustrated. I have a 301 on a Grace frame and when I had my practice piece with batting loaded, everything was great. Got the tension adjusted and my stitches were very nice. So when I loaded my quilt I changed my needle and thread. I am also using a batting with a scrim. Now I'm skpping stitches like crazy. I put the old needle back in, made sure the backing wasn't too tight and still no good. Should I change my batting? Maybe its the scrim. What needle should I use. I was using a jeans needle when practising with good results. I don't know...help please.

You said you changed everything when you loaded the quilt- its always best to do a practice with the same fabric, batting, thread, needle to set your machine up for your project. I've not heard of batting with scrim causing skipped stitches.... Warm & natural is pretty popular batting. Your needle needs to be the right size for the thread being used. If you changed back to the first needle and it still happens I would recommend switching the thread. I've found thread can often cause lots of problems. Not all machines like all thread.

I like using an 18 needle when my machine is on the frame. I get fewer skipped stitches with the bigger needle.

A jean needle is a larger needle that I use for quilting. You should run your test sandwich with the thread and batting you will be using on the quilt you are quilting.

If you're skipping stitches it is likely that the needle is flexing so that it doesn't have a chance to pick up the thread from the bobbin. This could happen if you're moving the sewing machine too fast. A heavier needle might also help.

Thanks for the replies. The batting was very close to being the same. The only thing that was very different was the thread. I will go back to the original thread and see what happens. Thanks.

It could be that the presser foot isn't compressing the fabric sandwich enough - I had that problem recently. Tested ok, started to quilt and got skipped stitches - adjusted so the presser foot was closer to the surface and the skipping resolved.

Well I changed thread from Connecting threads to King Tut. I just have one spool of it and it variegated and actually looks nice. And my little old 301 prefers it. Go figure.

My Viking MegaQuilter has thread it prefers!!!