Sporadic Eyelashes -- Need Help
 

I'm working on a quilt for my granddaughter's college graduation and am under a time crunch.

When I rolled the quilt on my longarm there are sporadic eyelashes. It appears to go along just fine and then an eyelash appears. There are too many to ignore so I am ripping it out. Ugh. But, what can I do to prevent this from happening when I start quilting it again?

I thought maybe tension, but since some is good, if I adjust the tension won't that mess up the part that is good? I use the TOWA gauge and the tension is what has worked for me for many years. Any idea what is causing it and how to prevent it??

if the eyelashes appeared on the curves, I'd say it was that you were stitching too fast, but since they're most often in the straighter sections, it may be the tension. Have previous quilts had the same batting/fabric combination?

I've had this happen. I found that it is my bobbin not fitting correctly in the bobbin case... had the wrong bobbin. Once I matched it correctly, the condition shown disappears.

I had that problem, with me it was when I swooped to the left not the right in free motion. I started to make certain I went slower and it disappeared.

It seems to happen mostly when you are ready to change direction. I wonder if it's the speed also. Sorry you have to get out the ripper.

I was thinking fluff on/around/in the bobbin area maybe?

how heartbreaking!! I don't have an answer, but I feel your pain. I find that sometimes I just pull everything apart and clean everything good and rethread everything and that seems to help me

I wish I had an answer for you. All I can think of is to rethread, clean out the bobbin area, and try a different bobbin. Not much help, huh...

Dina

It looks like your top tension is intermittently changing which would suggest to me that the top thread might be jumping out of the tension discs and back in again. Check your thread path to see if the thread is getting caught up on anything to cause this and that your thread is flossed securely in the tension discs and that there isn't fuzz in them to give the bad tension. Do you use a thread net so your thread doesn't inadvertently slip down the cone and get caught on the underside of your cone? Good luck and hope you have it solved. Tension issues can be a bear and are certainly the bane of my existence some days.

make sure the thread is seated in the tension discs--I've had thread pop loose and had problems with tension. Also, if it's Glide or a trilobal thread, using a netting on the cone may help.

Thank you all for your hints and advice. I will finish picking it out today and will try all of your ideas.

If it's on the bottom, then it's your top tension that needs adjusting. However, I agree that sometimes inconsistent speed causes this.

Those aren't eyelashes. They are the blobs caused by bobbin backlash. You will notice the majority of them seemed to happen when you are coming to a sharp point and abruptly change directions. Bobbin backlash happens when you change speeds abruptly, like coming to stop then switching directions. Especially when going fairly fast before doing it. It is caused because your bobbin is spinning inside the bobbin case and continues to spin even when the machine is stopped. This results in the excess thread being available in the hook and getting these loops on the back. Bobbin backlash is characterized by a large loop of bobbin thread happening in odd places.

I can't stress enough that this is NOT a tension issue. Especially when you say that it only happens sporadically and the rest of your stitches look good.

Do you have an anti backlash check spring for your bobbin case? Those help alleviate the problem but unless you slow down and are aware when you change directions, it can still happen. Magic Genie bobbin washers also help to alleviate it.

The only product I have ever found that eliminates them completely, aside from being hyper aware of abrupt changes in speed when you are moving the machine head, are magna glide bobbins. The bobbin core has a magnet that stops the bobbin from freely spinning inside the bobbin case.

Does your machine have a cruise setting? I have a lot less problems when I keep mine on about 6%, which means when I stop, the machine keeps stitching slowly. It allows for taking an extra stitch at points and stuff like that.

You mentioned this is happening on the back of the quilt, so I assume the extra white thread is the TOP thread, and not the bobbin. If that is the case, is that caused by backlash? I've had the opposite problem at times, where it's pulling extra bobbin thread up to the top at some of the direction changes when I'm using the robotics.

I just got a TOWA gauge and discovered my favorite bobbins won't pull uniformly. They are the five that came with the machine and they are a bit heaver and have a bit of a curve to the bobbin sides. The ones I picked up afterwards are lighter and very flat, and they pull evenly. So I figure a lot of my sporadic tension problems were do to those bobbins.

To me it looks to be the top tension is not consistent. Try cleaning, rethreading, and tightening the top tension.

Slow down your hand movement or speed up your machine....you are in a hurry, slow down a bit....

I would say too, this is not a tension issue. My Two-Spool was giving me some of those loops so I took it to my young-sewing-machine-guy. He thought he had it fixed. Then I took the machine to their store to take a class and the same thing was still happening. He was right there, so he looked at it again.

When you looked at the throat plate, you could almost figure it out. There were numerous scratches in the throat plate, which means someone was sewing a lot with bent needles and breaking them. The needle hole was even larger than normal. The breaking needles caused a burr in the needle hole and some of the metal was actually worn away. The burr was catching the thread every once in a while. I had to have a new throat plate, and now the machine works beautifully with no eyelashes.

Clover makes a tool called the Thread Pic. Works great for burying those unwanted loops.