mlmack

From what I gather, the horizontal bobbin arrangement is the issue, due to the 90-degree turn in the thread path.

bemer

I FMQ on my 500A, and did several quilts before I read this thread. It did take a while before I got everything set up right, but now I have no issues. I set the foot pressure to 4, tension at 5 and 1/2, use 100/16 needle. The feed plate is raised and the stitch length is set to "fine". I prefer slightly longer stitches in my quilting so I do not "race", just take my time. The hardest thing was to get my tension right. I can rip out stitches pretty good now! I keep this machine set up for quilting only, and do my piecing on the Kenmore Rotary.

bemer

I went back and looked at your sample...my stitches looked like that until I increased the tension. Then I had a problem with the thread breaking, so I switched to 100/16 needles and that has eliminated the breakage, and my stitches are looking good. Will try to post a picture tomorrow.

irishrose

I normally FMQ with my 301, but tried my 404 because that was the machine available at the time. The tension was perfect when it straight stitched, but the machine wouldn't maintain the correct tension for FMQ. I had to remove it all and redo it on a 301, so it's vertical bobbin for me.

Candace

Not all horizontal bobbin machines are terrible at FMQing. But, the 500 and 401 series are..

ThayerRags

My wife has done FMQ on several quilts using her Singer 401A. It was the machine that she used when she began learning how to FMQ. She has done it both with the needle plate up and the plate down, and didn’t notice much difference one way or the other. She set her stitch length on zero, used a darning foot, size 11 needle, Maxi-Lock serger thread (Tex27), and used her straight stitch needle plate. The machine was mounted in a Singer 430 Profile 3-way Sewing Desk (43 1/4" x 37 1/2" working surface), so she had plenty of room and support. She had good luck with it.

Then I set her up a Singer 96-40 industrial (20"x48" top), but it gave her fits. I had the feed dogs removed and a solid needle plate (no feed dog slots) on it, but I was slow in getting her a good darning foot for it. She broke a couple of cheap cheesy ones that I had rigged up. It was mounted in a treadle stand with a small electric motor for temporary power, and the treadle plate was in her way to get into a comfortable position to use her electric foot control. By the time I got a good darning foot for it, she had moved on to my Singer 301A mounted in the large cabinet that her 401A had been in, and she likes it best. I’m planning on setting the 96-40 up as a treadle sometime to see how she gets along with it that way. She didn’t want to treadle while she’d learned to FMQ, and I just haven’t gotten it set back up again for her.

CD in Oklahoma

bemer

Sample of quilting with the 500A
[ATTACH=CONFIG]449165[/ATTACH]

MFord

Is this true - stippling isn't the easiest pattern to learn??!!! That's what I've been trying to do on my brand new expensive Bernina with the BSR, and I'm just glad the quilt has a lot of black in it! I did better on my Mom's old Singer (don't know which one) with a bare needle and the stitch length set to zero! Please, what is an easy pattern to learn?

Candace

It's very hard to see any issues or lack thereof from your photos. What may be acceptable for you, may not be for me-and vice versa. I've FMQ'ed on many 500 and 401 series machines and they are just way to fussy and the stitch quality is much better in other machines.

Candace

Practice makes perfect and you have to start somewhere.