What happened here????
 

I am just sick to death over this quilt!! The top quilting is beautiful but underneath it looks like the batting tried to come out with almost every stitch. I blew the picture up so you could see the stitches. It could also be the backing fabric that caused it. But, to me, it takes away from the whole quilt! Someone please tell me what happened here and if it has ever happened to you??

I have had this happen with W&N batting when I loaded it upside down. When I cut and flipped the batting it was fine. I always check underneath after the first 12 to 14" of stitching to make sure nothing is going wrong on the backside. Then I check with every advance and every bobbin change. I have had tension go off because a blob of lint got stuck in the bobbin spring mid row so that is why I check early and check often. Usually with every advance.

In your case I would bet the batting was W&N and it was loaded wrong way up.

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Other things that could cause this is a dull needle or it had a burr on the end which pushed pokies of batting through. Unfortunately nothing will correct the problem. You can camoflauge it by taking a black permanent marker to the pokies. Washing will sometimes get it to draw up but it won't make them disappear entirely. The only real solution is not a pretty one. Either rip the entire thing out or completely "skin" the quilt (which will sacrifice your backing), and start over. I am sorry you had to experience it. Pretty much every longarm quilter will at some point in their quilting journey.

The only time I had this happen to me was when my needle had leftover sticky gunk from sewing through some self-stick interfacing. And fortunately I could hear it was sewing funny so I didn't get too far before I corrected it.

Did you do the quilting on a long arm or on a domestic machine? I have heard this happens more with longarms because the needle is so much larger. I don't have a longarm myself though, so that's just what I've heard.

If possible, using a black batting if you have a dark backing might help at least disguise the issue.

My first thought was batting in upside down....when using w&n I always tell myself, Eyes(brown specks) up...meaning they are looking at me in the sandwich.......next might be a burr in the needle......use a piece of crocus cloth to get that off...or just change the needle!......

How sad. I had read previous posts on these problems with W&N. I just bought a king size batting of W&N since it was on sale at JAF. Will have to send this info onto my new LAQ. Thanks for the post. I normally use ONLY Hobbs 80/20 batting and never had a problem with that batting before.

I was using Hobbs 80/20 . I had the bumpy side up like I thought was the way to place it. I just did another one with the bumpy side down and it is doing great. The back is not black though. I have some warm and natural batting. I'll have to remember this tip on it. So, far my quilting with it has been great! My needle was new.( not to say it could have been defective. It is a size smaller than recommended for the machine so that it doesn't make the larger hole. Thanks for the info so far.

How do you place the Hobbs? bumpy side up or down?

Wow Leesa, I feel for you. I haven't had this happen yet so I am grateful I read about it here. I use both WandM and Hobbs.

Hobbs 80/20 does not have a bumpy side. Either side can be up. Your problem is sometimes caused by the backing fabric. What fabric did you use for the backing, and was it pre-washed?

I have never had that problem. I quilt on DSM.

I too was wondering if it could have been the backing fabric that was the culprit. Was it washed? Is it light/white on the backside? I was thinking it could have been the actual fabric weft that was being exposed by quilting it. Maybe the needle hole was causing the backside of the backing fabric to show through? I hope you can figure out why/how this happened and maybe when it's washed, it won't hardly be noticable. Such a shame that this happened to you.

I took a closer look at your photo and it does seem to me that the weave on that backing fabric is unusual.

I just heard a saying on batting about "show the dimples and hide the pimples".... I think it was on Fons & Porter but I'm not sure.

What she meant was have the bumps (pimples) pointed towards the backing...away from the needle going in and out.

Show the dimples (indentations) since that is the way the batting was made and it works best for it to be next to the top.

Here's an article too: http://www.apqs.com/blog/2013/01/22/...n-up-and-down/

I use W&N and have never paid attention how I layer it. I have also never had problems with bearding and I have used A LOT of Warm products over the years. I wonder if it was the weave of the fabric combined with a dull-ish needle.

I'm sorry that this happened to you, after its washed it might look different

sometimes even new needles have a burr

Was there also an unbalanced tension problem also? It looks like the quilt was being moved faster than the machine could handle and the batting was being dragged to the surface by the needle between stitches.

This is ONLY an issue with longarms. A longarm needle compared to a DSM needle looks like a harpoon. So there will be many people who have used W&N and never had a problem because they are not quilting on a longarm.

The only time I have had that happen is when the batting is upside down. There is a right side and a wrong side to it...

Boy, sure am glad I read this. I didn't realize there was a wrong and right side to warm and natural.

Yes, my local quilt shop was having this problem and thought that they had a bad batch of batting. That is when they learned that there is a right and wrong side to the batting when using W&N. This was many years ago, but foremost in my mind because that is my batting of choice.

your backing fabric looks "tight"which may have caused the problem. With dark tops/backing I do use black bat to be safe.

you learn something all the time. i did not know there was a right and wrong side to a batting. wow.......

I believe it's only Warm and Natural batting that has a right and wrong side. This is because it is needlepunched through scrim.

This is what is called "pokies " and happens with longarm quilting. It happens to some extent with every quilt but really shows up because the light batting pokes through and is very visible on a dark backing. No tweeking of tension, or changing of needles will prevent it. The only solution is to use a black batt when you have a dark backing. Washing and drying may help somewhat.

I had this happen recently...didn't matter which side I used...still pokies...it was with Hobbs...whist helped was to loosen the quilt top on the frame...tight backing fabric makes it worse...and also when I tightened the top tension it also seemed to help - lot...but I didn't discover this until I was almost finished...pokies sometimes go away after washing the quilt...

I've been told to use black batting for anything with a dark background. I bought my first one to use on the Jinny Beyer BOM I'm working on. I'd been warned by a very good friend on here about it. She'd had that happen to her. So sorry to hear it's happened to you too!