Tartan

I tried to use my BSR to quilt a couple of wallhangings with black background fabric. I have come to the conclusion (after much hair pulling!) that the BSR does not like black fabric. I put on the regular darning foot, fine. BSR on a light fabric ( same thread and set-up) fine. I am just wondering if anyone else has trouble with skipped stitches using the BSR on black?

mckwilter

Have you checked the bobbin thread?

I don't use my BSR. I found that if I set the machine speed where I felt comfortable, then I could either press the pedal all the way down and just keep my hands at a steady speed or I could use the on/off button and forget about the pedal altogether.

ManiacQuilter2

Tartan, my Bernina was bought years before the BSR were made but I find it hard to quilt on black with my eyesight. Maybe the BSR needs a trip to the optometrist!

Candace

I get skipped stitches occasionally on some types of fabric. I've also found it doesn't care for tone on tones either. If you put it on #2, constant stitching you should see less skipping.

dunster

You say that you are getting skipped stitches. Do you really mean this, or are you getting long stitches? A skipped stitch is when the needle goes down but does not create a stitch, while a long stitch is formed when there is a longer distance between needle-down events. The reason this is important is that the causes of the two problems are different.

If you are truly getting skipped stitches, then your black fabric is probably not to blame. The BSR is telling the needle to go down, but for some other reason the stitch is not being formed. One possible reason could be that you are pulling the fabric enough to deflect the needle before the stitch can be formed. A heavier needle might help with this problem; moving more slowly would also help. Also check for lint in the bobbin area.

If you are getting long stitches, the BSR might be the problem, or might not. I heard when I first got my Bernina that the BSR had problems on red fabric, but I did not find that to be the case. I don't think I ever tried it on a lot of black fabric, and now I use a longarm rather than the Bernina for quilting.

Do you have the machine set so that you get a beep when you move the fabric too fast for the BSR to keep up? If not, try setting it so that you get that beep. It's annoying, but it does tell you when you're moving too fast, and that could be the cause of the long stitches. The solution of course is to slow down your hand movements.

Another problem could be that the BSR needs to be cleaned, but if it's working fine on light fabric then that probably isn't the issue. If you are truly getting long stitches (as opposed to missed stitches) and are not moving too fast, then I would suggest calling your sewing machine dealer and asking about the problem. It could be that there's an update to the BSR electronics that would fix the problem. (I know that my dealer installed an update several years ago, and after that the BSR seemed to work better.) Or maybe black fabric is a known problem that isn't well advertised. I hope this helps.

Skyangel

I second Dunster's thoughts. I would talk to your dealer and make sure your BSR doesn't need an update. Mine was one of the earliest 440s so when the update came out, it was simply a trip to the dealer to attach my BSR to the shop 830 machine - it installed the update automatically. I can't say I've done much BSR on black fabric, but I do have mine set to beep if I go to fast and usually have no issues.

Tartan

I got the BSR update last year when it went to the shop. I really think it couldn't read the fabric. I would move my sandwich and the needle would not go down to make a stitch for about an inch. Bizarre but put on the darning foot and just fine. I can do a decent job with my regular FM darning foot so I finished it that way. I did make sure the sensor was clean.

Doggramma

I made a quilt with black Kona fabric and my 820 with BSR didn't have a problem

QuiltE

First of all, I agree with all of Dunster's thoughts on this.

I have not used the BSR on black but with a very dark green, almost black, with no problem.

Were you working along the edge of the sandwich, with the sensor off the fabric and thus thinking there is nothing to FMQ?? That would cause the BSR to not want to stitch!