craftychick

I was practicing FMQ on a sandwich equal to the real quilt. After I was happy with my amateur design, I started quilting the real quilt. All I had then was trouble. I was using the same machine settings, same thread, even the needle, until it broke and hit me in the head. I used another needle same size, then another needle smaller size, then another needle larger size. All in all I broke a total of 6 needles. I gave up on FMQ and did stitch in the ditch. Can anyone tell me why my needles were breaking. I vacuumed out dust from the bobbin area and underneath. I have an 11 month old Pfaff Expression 2.0. Any ideas will be helpful for my next project. Thanks and Happy Holidays!

romanojg

It sounds like you may have been pulling to hard on the fabric. I would recommend using gloves either the ones for FMQ or garden ones with rubber grips. It really makes a difference; one that you wouldn't have noticed when moving a smaller portion of fabric.

Taino Jan

As a friend from west Texas says "That's a head scratcher." Hope you get some answers that help.

skate

My machines sometimes like to play little jokes like this on me. Also on my students. I really think that the machine gets an attitude and just lets you deal with it. Give yourself a break, and when you go back, you may very well have no more problems.

Tartan

The needle is either hitting the throat plate or quilting foot. The quilt is probably pulling the needle to one side and it's hitting something on the way to the bobbin. You need to have the quilt supported so there is no drag on it. You also need to "puddle" the quilt in the area you are sewing. If you have the single throat plate on (small round hole) switch to the zig zag throat plate. This will help the needle not to hit.

Quiltbeagle

I'm sure there will be other suggestions, but when I was FMQ a quilt on my new machine I found that I was pushing and pulling the quilt, especially around the curves resulting in a bent needle... which then broke. Maybe you're doing the same? In my case I had to support the quilt so the weight wouldn't pull it and just relax and slow myself down. Good luck and thank you for the holiday wishes!

deemail

it is tempting to go slow when FMQ but the problem is that tends to let the needle break as you pull it back and forth... go a bit faster and see if it's not a bit better...

ploverwi2

Been there, done that, and I found that when I stopped being so aggressive with pulling and pushing and by moving the quilt while wearing the quilting gloves and speeding up my machine, the problem stopped immediately.