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Hi Janet,

 

Sorry I couldn't get back to you today during normal office hours! Ever have a day when you seemed to meet yourself coming and going at the same time? :) I had one of those today.

 

Here are some things that you will want to double-check on your machine:

 

1. Manually lower the needle with the fly wheel (take the thread out of the needle) and try sliding a business card underneath your hopping foot from all angles. It should be snug but should slide under the foot. If it is tight on one side or the other, we need to level it out. (Remove the needle, raise the foot again, and slip a flat blade screwdriver into the foot's center circle and under the offending edge. Gently pry it up and then check for level again.

 

2. Turn your needle slightly to the left when you tighten it. This opens up the rear scarf of the needle to allow the hook to catch the thread loop completely.

 

3. Instead of wrapping your thread around the 3-hole guide, weave it in and out, starting from the underside of the first hole. Extra thread twist can cause those "walking stitches" you see.

 

4. Loosen the top and bobbin tension slightly to see if you can reduce overall thread tension (which pulls hard on the needle) while still getting a good stitch.

 

Let us know how it's going!

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So I have have done all of Dawns suggestions. Here is a picture of what I get now only look at the last row of stitching. I get about 1 inch of good stitches (I think they are good) and then more than 6 inches of yucky stitches and then another inch of ok stitches- anymore tips out there?post-6160-0-23179300-1366483798_thumb.jpg

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It is hard for me to see all of your stitches but the stitches I do see look good. What do the bad stitches look like?? Are they flat? loose? not formed properly? Blow out your bobbin case and make sure no lint is caught anywhere inside. Blow out your bobbin assembly before putting the bobbin back into your Millie. Is your quilt sandwich too tight?? I tighten my quilt all the way, then back off a little. Is your material good cotton?? I know sometimes when I use a cheap cotton or practice on a sheet my stitches are not as pretty. What size is your needle? I use a 4.0 and have good results. What thread are you using? Some are harder then others to get good tension.

Maybe someone with more experience will help you soon.

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Are you talking about the white bits you can see between your stitches?

Is this the bobbin thread you can see in the needle hole. If you run your fingernail along the top of the thread can you feel little bumps at each white spot, if so loosen you top tension just a bit so that it is not pulling the bobbin thread as far to towards the top.

If you are talking about the thread jumping to the left and the right over

the weave of the fabric - I don't think any of us would be able to stitch with the same grain line of fabric and keep our stitches perfectly straight.

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no I just took a picture with my iphone it is the top.  If you look at the bottom row right in the middle you will see about an inch of good normal stitches and before and after it is almost like the thread gets way thinner and well just wrong!  I am so frustrated by this and I know it should not be this hard!  thanks for everyones patience.  I also have a DH that is getting frustrated based on the amount of $$ spent on this silly thing.  Also the rep I bought it from no longer lives in the area so now I dont even have her as a resource!

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I would suggest that you check all of the areas that the thread goes through and make sure it isn't getting caught or dragging on a small burr.  It really doesn't look that bad, sometimes it is just a combination of the fabric, thread and batting.  Sometimes the combination is perfect and it looks great and other times, if one of those is not playing nice, you can get some problems with the tension.  I would try putting a differant piece of fabric and batting on the side of the quilt and play with the tension on that until it looks good.  If it goes back to making you not happy on the original quilt, it has to be the combination of that particular fabric, batting or thread.  Once in a while I get something that just does not look great.

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Janet,

 

Here are some more things to double check, based on what I see in the bottom row of stitches:

 

1. Make sure the 3-hole thread guide right by the tensioner is pointed to "8:00". If it sinks lower, it allows your top thread to lose its tension for an instant as the thread slides in and out of the tension disks. 

 

2. If you have told me what kind of thread you're using, then I apologize...I've forgotten. :) If it's Signature, King Tut, or a cotton thread, then you may need to change the wrap through the 3-hole guide even more; try skipping the center hole completely, while still "weaving" instead of wrapping it around. 

 

3. The U-shaped wire right by the tension assembly (called the tension check spring) must draw each stitch tightly. It appears that those stitches are a little looser. Put a screwdriver into the slot that you see right in the center of the tension knob. From wherever that slot happens to be pointing at the moment, turn it "5 minutes" more clockwise. This will put a little more pressure on that spring to be sure it's tightening the thread with each stitch. 

 

4. If you haven't already done so, put a piece of cotton batting (about a 1-inch by 3-inch piece rolled into a 1-inch "tube") into the first thread guide directly above the thread cone. Then run your thread underneath it. The thread should be trapped between the batting and the thread guide (don't run the thread through the batting "cigar"). Make sure the batting puts just a little pressure on the thread. This keeps the thread path "taut" all the way from the cone to the needle. If the thread jumps erratically off the cone (it can do that with fibrous thread like cotton, or fuzzy thread, or even slippery/slinky thread) then that little "hiccup" travels all the way to the tension disks, where it can cause a slight tension change for an instant.

 

5. Try a larger needle. When the machine moves to the left or away from you, the needle flexes in the wrong direction, making proper stitch formation difficult. Lots of other factors affect that too; watch this video to learn more: 

 

6. Try a different brand of thread to see if you get the same result. That will help to narrow down the issue to a mechanical thing or something that is inherent to that thread type. 

 

Don't get discouraged; we'll figure it out!

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