FMQ-What am I doing wrong!!!?!!!
 

I have this quilt I am doing for a friend's daughter. I REALLY wanted to try my hand at a meander. I had practiced a few times on small scraps and it didn't seem too bad. I figured this quilt was a good way to practice. I could sew around each block and then meander in that box. Make it seem less daunting. While the top doesn't look too shabby (I was even happy with my spacing), the bottom looks HORRIBLE! What am I doing wrong? I have my feed dogs down. My stitch size set to 0..and my tension on 8-9?

I feel so VERY frustrated because I REALLY want to do this. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I sure would like it usable. :( I am guessing by the looks of the back that I need to figure out how to pull that all out and try again?

Am I just moving my fabric too fast? Not going fast enough on my sewing machine? (speed wise?)

Pics of the back:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps56d37d87.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pseb448800.jpg

Pics of the front:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psd18b1f6c.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps2f35ce46.jpg

I feel so very frustrated and honestly..dumb. Is FMQ really this hard?! I am just tired of stitching in the ditch or straight line quilting. I wanted to do a quilt that actually LOOKED quilted. Please help!!!

I think you may have your top tension to high.

Pat in MN

I am still learning and i've found that when this happens it is a combination of any of the following: the tension being too low, my hands moving too fast and my machine speed being too slow. I've also found that it's much more likely to happen on poly batting than cotton.

Being the pro that I am at FMQ I can tell you that a seam ripper will take that right out and you should be able to go over it again.

edited to add: i don't know if i can link to another quilting web site so I'll just share with you that if you type "what is FMQ eyelasing" into the search engine of your choice, you'll find a TON of information on how to troubleshoot the problem!

Same here, it should be easy to take out so try it again.

yep... you really have to play with your tension

slow down new Needle first, put your tension and length back to what you use to stitch with. I never change the tension, length and keep my feet dogs up and always use a new needle. Here is sample of my quilting I do on my Juki
[ATTACH=CONFIG]403027[/ATTACH]

I have best success with new needle, medium speed (if you can, set the speed on machine and let it run), feed dogs down, tension at about 7, and moving the fabric slower.....once you get the hang of it, you can speed up the machine and fabric.....tension can be a tricky thing, you will have to play with it a bit.....don't get down on yourself, it isn't easy at all the first few times you try.....put together some practice sandwiches to work on until you at least get the tension better....I despise ripping out, so will always get a practice sandwich before starting a quilt, just to make sure machine is behaving!.....it looks like your stitch length is pretty consistent (something I always struggle with), so that is one aspect you won't have to worry about so much....try to have fun, but practice, practice, practice!

It looks to me like your top thread may not be actually in the tension disks, or your bobbin tension is way too high. If it was just a speed issue, those eyelashes would be more prevalent around the curves, but yours look fairly consistent throughout.

First, I'd take the thread out of both the top and the bobbin and totally re-thread.
Next I would do a "regular" straight stitch on a practice sample using a regular foot with the feed dogs up and stitch length set "normally" to see if the tension looks good that way. If not good, adjust and necessary and re-test. The tension shouldn't need to be changed significantly between doing a regular stitch and a FMQing stitch as long as you are using the same threads as you will for FMQing.

Then I'd drop the feed dogs,
Set the stitch length to zero,
Put on my quilting foot,
and do some test meandering on a practice sample with the same or similar backing batting and top fabrics.

When all looks good on the practice piece, you'll be all set to go back to your quilt!

This is the process I go throught each and every time I set up for FMQing a piece.

I agree with Wendy-I agree with you on how frustrating it is at first, I've only done 11 quilts, and I'm always convinced I've ruined my beautiful tops. The tension problem here is more than a little eyelashing, something is threaded wrong, or maybe your bobbin is in backward in your bobbin cover and it's catching.

I had this happen to me. I would re-thread the machine, change needles, check the bobbin and lower the tension. Hope you find a solution, this is frustrating.

adjust your top tension , i had the same problem with my new juli 2000 qi , finally i got it adjusted right, now i love. it .adjust a little at a time , then a little more , you'll get there. i had to do alot of picking out too , uck , good luck

Well..I had just finished doing a regular stitch around the squares themselves and you can actually see that in the pictures. It looked fine.

And then I switched to my darning foot, changed the tension and length. I will rethread my bobbin and get a new needle and set everything back...and see if it makes a difference. I have no idea how to change the tension in the top thread.

Ugh..it's just so frustrating. I'm trying to remember to breath....and take it slowly.

To change the tension in the top thread you need to twist your tension dial in the body of your machine. To adjust BOBBIN tension you have to turn a screw on the bobbin case. Something looks wonky with your top tension to me, but I'm a novice too.

That happens to me when I forget to lower the pressure foot. Easy to take out. Good luck.

Sorry for you problem and thank you for sharing
Have a Blessed night
Ellen

Thats exactly what I was thinking...It's so easy to forget when you're using the darning foot. It can also be lint in the bobbin area or if your machine needs a little drop of oil in that area. Also be sure the bobbin thread is wound nice and tight, although you would probably see problems with straight stitch too. I have found that my Janome does require more top tension unless I'm using the blue dot bobbin case.

I rewound my bobbin and put in a new needle and reset my tension. I tried it again on a left over practice piece. This time it looked much better. It would knot in areas where I would halt without stopping the machine and every now and then I would see a small loop of thread that looked like it didn't catch. But it didn't look nearly like it did early. So maybe I will try again tomorrow.

I've had this happen to me and it was the bobbin thread wasn't engaged with the tension spring. Hope this helps.

I wouldn't know how to fix that.

Free Motion is fun, well when your machine is set correctly. I would check your bobbin tension that it is not too tight. Your quilt top is so pretty. Well at least it will rip easily. The "rules" say to check your tension on a sample piece. OK, I don't either.

Remember, loops on the back means your top thread tension is too loose or your bobbin tension too tight...loops on the top of the quilt means your top thread tension is too tight or bobbin tension is too loose. Making adjustments...righty tighty, lefty loosey! My advise in either case, try adjusting the top thread tension 1st. Using a practice sandwich 'til you get it fixed is always a great way to keep from having to rip things out.

I too, thank everyone for their helpful tips & suggestions. I have been trying freemotion lately & I am fighting with it too. Or I should say, all goes fine for a while then , suddenly it all goes terribly wrong. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one to experience problems. Well tomorrow is another day. I guess I will try again then, instead of quitting!!!!!

Make sure that you have the weight of the quilt supported. I had the same problem and when I made sure that the weight of the quilt was not dragging down things went well. I spent 2 hours ripping my mess out.

I read on this board that someone else had the same problem and they turned their sewing machine on its side which is what I did. I built up either side of the machine to support the weight.

Good luck with it.

Yes this above what Wendy says.

Also it seems every machine is different. It took me years to figure out the best setting for the Janome 6500. It ended up being that I have NO problems if I leave the feed dogs up with that machine. I also do better with a slightly thinner/lighter thread in the bobbin then the top or a lighter thread in both. When quilting I also use a top stitch needle 90/14. It made a big difference for me. Maybe you can post what machine this was done on.

I have done this a few times. The bobbin was put in going the wrong direction. Q or P I keep the book handy to remind me that I have to put it in a certain way. Sickening but it easy to pull out just frustrating from all the work.

don't know but you are brave for trying to FMQ

You said that you had just changed to the darning foot- did you put the foot down? It's an easy thing to forget when the feed dogs are down.

Every bit of advise given is good, Hope you get it resolved!!!!

Does your stitch plate have a small round hole or a wide oval zig zag hole? I have similar problems if I forget to change to the small round hole plate.

Yes, the small hole needle plate also helps : )

I am by no means an expert, still learning here. From what I've learned, once your feed dogs are down changing your stitch length makes no difference. I never change any of my settings for FMQ (including tension). When I've had that problem, it's because I wasn't moving the quilt at the right speed to match the machine. Don't give up! :)

First of all it looks like your tension is way off. Sometimes just retreading, or brushing out your bobbins case will do the trick. But as far as you motion, that looks pretty good. Remember YOU are controlling the speed of the machine and the size of the stitches. What I generally tell students that have taken my FMQ classes, is to practice drawing a meander on a piece of a paper a few times. It kind of gets into your head what you want to do. And as far as the stitch size, picture a dot-to-dot in a kids book. If the dots are farther apart , the line is not as smoothly round. If there are more points, the line can be nicely rounded, even though the lines between the points is actually straight. It helps to remember that as you move your work around. If you stitches are getting too big, speed up the machine, and slow down moving the fabric. If your stitches are too small - move the fabric a bit faster. You are going for a stitch size about the same as you would piece with. Oh yes - remember to to relax and have fun!!

as others have said it is a tension issue. It is a very pretty piece, though

I also have been so frustrated while trying to learn FMQ. Tension has never been right...then...I brought 3 of my machines in to be tuned..their normal check ups. When I got them back I wanted to test each one to make sure tension was right (last time I brought them back from repair I didn't test them and discovered 6 months down the road it didn't seem they were ever worked on..bummer..never again!). I started testing by doing FMQ with an early 90's Pfaff. I was excited that the FMQ was better than it ever had been before..straight stitch tension was fine..let me check the next one...an early 90's Bernina. FMQ stitch quality was even better than the Pfaff..., then lastly, check my old Bernina 931 (70's?) and the FMQ stitch quality was BEAUTIFUL!!! I was ecstatic! This is all to say...do you have another machine you can try it on? I even think my old Singer 15-91 might have a fantastic stitch if I could find a darning foot for it. I didn't touch the tension on any of these machines, put the feed dogs down and put stitch length to "0". My thought is perhaps these older mechanical machines are less fussy about tension and might handle FMQ better. It was such a relief for me to know that it wasn't all me...the machine I was working on really had a big part in making this a success. Don't give up! It isn't all a problem with how you are doing it.

That's a tension problem. You probably have to loosen your top tension. Do take that quilting out because it may not hold anyhow. FMQ isn't fast or easy to learn and you are doing fine. I did that when I was learning.

It looks to me like you have forgotten to lower the pressure foot.

That is exactly what happens to me when I forget to lower the foot. The good news is -- it's easy to pull out.

Hope this helps.

It's definitely tension related. Your stitching is beautiful, so once you have the tension figured out, I think you'll love the FMQ.

Assuming that your tension setting is 0 - 9 for the needle thread tension, 9 is extremely tight. You should be breaking the top thread instead of having eyelashes on the bottom. If it's to 30 or something, then it's probably not enough needle thread tension.

I had to look a second time at the photos, but I don't think your upper threading is right (again, assuming that 9 is the tightest setting on your tension dial)

In your photo, you have the occasional loose thread on the top as well. There's a lot of thread being pulled through without enough regulation. I think that your tension disks aren't holding the thread enough. Either there's fluff holding them apart, hence your need to crank up the tension setting, or the thread is just laying in the tensioner, not right in between the disks.

ETA: or as others have mentioned, the presser foot is up, and you're effectively sewing with 0 tension.

Clean your tension disks on the top (a little dental floss helps) , make sure the bobbin thread is leaving the case in the correct direction, drop your thread tension to about midway and rethread the machine.

When I thread, I do it in a weird way (which breaks the "rule" of threading always with your presser foot up) but I don't have issues with the tension disks not having a good grip on the thread.

1. Thread the machine with the presser foot up until you've threaded through the tension disks
2. Drop the presser foot
3. Grab both sides of thread as it enters and leaves the tension disks
4. give a gentle tug so that they're fully seated into the tension disks (if the thensioner is one of the "exposed" ones like on the older machines, and the thread makes a "V" going in and coming out of the tensioner, you can tell by how close the threads are to each other if they're fully seated)
5. Raise the presser foot, and continue threading the rest of the machine.

With my very limited experience with FMQ, I find I tend to have to lower my needle thread tension a smidge from regular sewing on some machines, but if you lower at this point without finding the actual source of the problem, you'll end up with nests.

ETA: What machine are you using to do this? If I can see a photo of it, I can help with the tension settings.

Additionally, here's a test you can try to figure out which thread tension is giving you fits:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post5941686

Remember the adjustments, to the right is tighting and to the left is loosing: righty-tighty and lefty-loosey

BoBbin was probably in backwards or not in correctly..this happened to me twice...we are now using bobbins with the magnet core so this does not happen again.....