sherber

Hi everyone!

I hope that this is a topic that has not been talked to death on this board.. I've found a lot of threads about the hopping foot on the Juki TL series machines, but not really much mention of my particular issue..

I had been learning to FMQ on my Janome with a floating foot and doing great, and I decided to get a Juki TL-2200 QVP mini (pretty much a TL-2010) for the larger harp space. It's such a nice machine, but free motion quilting on it has been a trial.

First, I tried the hopping foot. I did not like it. So, I modified the hopping foot following Leah Day's instructions. Perfect! Except that using this foot is where my problems with skipped stitches and thread breakage began. I decided to buy the Janome free motion foot set that fits this machine. It was brilliant! Except that I still had thread breakage. I adjusted the tension and switched from Mettler to Aurifil, and my problems got a little better... but they're still there. Sometimes I sit down to quilt and the tension still doesn't seem quite right, or the thread will break occasionally.

So tonight I decided to sit down with the hopping foot. (This was originally brought on by machine envy- I was watching a review of Leah Day's Juki TL-2200 long arm sit down machine and she mentioned only being able to use a hopping foot with it and having to get used to it. So I thought, maybe I should just get used to my hopping foot so someday when I get a long arm I'm used to it!) My tension looked great and I had no thread breakage problems. Am I doing something wrong with my non-hopping feet, or does my machine just work better with the hopping foot and I need to just get used to it? Has anyone else had this experience?

Another question - I've noticed with the hopping foot that it kind of grips the quilt sandwich between the foot and the machine bed. It takes more pulling to move the quilt than it does with the floating foot. I think this is what I find most frustrating about the hopping foot - it's harder to move the quilt. Is this just the way the hopping foot works? Would it be helped by a supreme slider so that my quilt doesn't catch on the slots where the feed dogs are?

tl;dr - my machine likes the hopping foot better, do I just need to suck it up and learn to love it?

Thanks for reading my essay!
-Cheryl

Prism99

You might find that a polyester thread such as Glide will work with your floating foot. Polyester is stronger than cotton and that bit of extra strength may prevent it from breaking or shredding.

PaperPrincess

I do think that this is an area of personal preference. I started FMQ on my domestic machine with a floating darning foot and did sort of OK. I purchased the hopping foot and did much better. I would just use what works best for you. As far as moving the quilt sandwich, the hopping foot does what its name says. It hops, in other words when the needle goes into the fabric, the foot hops down to hold it in place so the stitch can be made. When the stitch is completed, it hops back up. It takes some practice to quilt with the appropriate speed so you are in sync with the foot. Successful use of a hopping foot also may depend on a specific hopping foot setting on your machine. This setting also makes the feed dogs engage when the foot is down. They don't advance the fabric, they just apply pressure from the bottom to secure the fabric to make the stitch. Check your manual to see if your machine has a specific setting for this foot.

katier825

I'm the opposite, I like the hopping foot better than the floating foot that my Viking has. If it's not moving freely, you should check the presser foot pressure. For FMQ on the Juki, the book recommends reducing the pressure.

Gay

Perhaps you have been trying to move the sandwich too fast/too much, and this is why the thread is breaking.
You may find that with the foot holding the fabric down it won't allow you to move the fabric enough to pull the thread tight enough to break. We're told to run the machine very fast for FMQ, but I seem to make better stitches when I slow down. Just my 10cents worth.

quiltedsunshine

On those Jukis, you need to lower the presser foot tension, then it won't grab. The knob is on the top, left, and there's a gauge with a blue line. Turn the knob until the indicator reaches the blue line.

Dolphyngyrl

I have no issues using a hopping foot. I don't find the hoping makes a difference in tension when compared to my non hopping feet

Sailorwoman

I also have a Juki and I ordered the open toe foot when I purchased the machine. It works great! But Quilted Sunshine mentioned adjusting the height of the presser foot. This is so true. The manual recommends a distance of about 1mm. (I think) between the foot and the fabric. That works well for me and I rarely have thread issues.

sherber

I've already adjusted the presser foot pressure, it seems to grab the quilt even with the pressure low. Adjusting it doesn't seem to make much of a difference - it doesn't change the height of the foot, just the amount of pressure it pushes down with. (and yes, I am adjusting it the right direction to decrease the pressure). I don't know specifically that the quilt dragging a bit is a problem, other than that I'm working harder to move it - it sounds from what some of you said that the hopping foot is meant to squish the quilt anyway. I just didn't know if that was how it was meant to work or if something was off on my machine

I can try polyester thread, but it's a little frustrating that so many people talk about their Juki machines handling any thread they throw at it and not having breakage with a quality thread like Aurifil. I really like Aurifil and I don't really want to stop using it. But it's worth a try, I suppose... I've been eyeballing the Connecting Threads Essentials Pro in those big cones, so maybe it's time to give those a try.

Also, moving the sandwich too much - I do not have this problem FMQing with my Janome, and I do not move the quilt any faster or slower on my Juki. This machine just doesn't seem to like the floating foot. To be honest, I'm getting a little frustrated because I bought this machine specifically to quilt on, but quilting seems to be the thing I've had the most problems with. Sigh.

Thanks everyone!

Patricia Drew

I have the Juki TL2010Q, and I use the hopping foot that came with the machine,as well as a modified Juki foot as per Leah Day, and also a Sharon Schamber non hopping foot. I usually use the hopping foot when my quilt has lots of intersecting seams. Today, I'm quilting a panel, so i'm using the Sharon Schamber non hopping foot. Whenever I have thread breakage or shredding, the first thing I do is lower the needle tension considerably.

Have you tried that?