Skip stitches.....John Mitchel ?

[TishMarshall]

John,

I have a Milli that has/had been stitching fine. I'm working on a vintage quilt--made about 20+? yrs ago... The first 3/4 of quilting went along without any challenges, good stitches, tension, etc, now all I get is skipped stitches.

I have changed the needle, checked tension, re-threaded machine....nothin! Skip for about 10 stitches then sews again. More skip happens from lower Right going to upper left and when doing swirls/circles.

I had a friend come over, she played with it. Between her and her hubby they said it wasn't a timing issue. Thank you Anna.

She was able to mess with it enough to get it to sew at a very slow rate with very minimal skips.

SO, now what?

And Thank you in advance.

[Amy Stuart - APQS Service]

Were you able to get your project finished? I guess the real test would be to load a practice piece and see if you have the same problems with it. I know that some fabrics have a 'painted' pattern on them, and that can really mess with the timing and tension sometimes...not sure what your 'vintage' quilt is made from.

Sometimes skipped stitches can be related to the hopping foot height - make sure it is low enough for the project you are working on...

Call me if you are still having problems....

[DawnCavanaugh]

Tish,

when it skips moving that direction, the needle is pulling away from and ahead of the hook. Have you tried going up one size for your needle?

If it's skipping in those directions, then it can be a timing issue in that there is a gap between the needle and the hook, and when you move in that direction, the gap gets wider, causing the hook to miss the top thread.

You can also try tweaking the needle to the LEFT slightly. This "opens up" the scarf (indentation) on the back of the needle so that the hook can capture the top thread before it deflects off the needle. If the needle is tweaked the other way, there's a greater chance that the hook will hit the edge of the needle first before it enters the scarf, deflecting the needle just enough so that it misses the top thread.

[John Mitchell]

Tish:

You asked this question in another post and here was my reply.

Tish:

Since you asked here goes. The first thing you need to check is to see if you have needle holes in the skipped area. If not you are having long stitches and not skipped stitches and you need to check your encoder wheels. Move your machine only in a horizontal direction then in a vertical direction and see if the skip is in one direction. If so check the encoder wheel on that encoder.

Your post makes me think it is an encoder issue. It does not sound like skipped stitches. Let me know and then we will work from there.

John

[TishMarshall]

Amy,

The machine quilted the first 3/4 just fine, the fabric look like an old white muslin.

Dawn,

I will see if changing the needle helps.

John,

Thanks, I wasn't sure you'd get the other posting so I posted it in another. Sorry for double posting.

I will check tomorrow, going in those directions. Having an uneducated guess, I'd say it was a decoder because it came on while quilting, all I did was start a new row and the skipping started.

THANK YOU, Amy, Dawn and John for your help. It is much appreciated!

[John Mitchell]

Tish:

Don't forget to check for needle holes first.

Later,

John

[TishMarshall]

Yes there are needle holes.

I have changed the needle and direction and still have skipping, pushing away from me and going to the left.

I have 18's, somewhere, but haven't found them yet. I will see some other longarm friends tomorrow and will just pick up some larger needles while I'm there.

[SoBuzy]

Thanks for this info! I'm having problems with skipped stitches too! Going to try above recommendations.