tension with prewound bobbins

[quiltingwithlove]

I have a customer who brought back a quilt I had done on my CQ and in a few small areas there were "railroad tracks" on the back of the quilt. The rest of the tension on the quilt was fine. She was mildly upset, but I didn't think it was that noticeable.

I was using pre-wound bobbins - and have both from Superior and some from APQS so don't remember which I was using. Sometimes getting old just stinks! The top of the quilt of course looked fine.

Anyone else have any suggestions or similar problems?

SusieQ

Prescott Valley AZ

[Cheryll]

I think this customer has too much time on her hands and is trying to get a discount or something. If it looks fine on the front and mostly looks great on the back. When she washes it all will be fine anyway don't you think? You special people who quilt for others really get a lot of static. I don't know if I'll ever get there. Ha ha Cheryll

[ramona-quilter]

SusieQ,

Like you, I have both Bobs and APQS bobbins. I just love

them; smooth running, lots of thread, fewer bobbin changes,

and I don't have to babysit the bobbin winder.

But.....I have had a couple that gave me some grief. One,

like yours, had the railroad tracks because of bad tension on

a curve. Luckily, I noticed it right away and took the bobbin

out and put it in the TOWA bobbin case tension gauge. Sure

enough, the tension was not my normal 20, it was down

to 10. The bobbin still had lots of thread so I loosened

the screw in the bobbin case, put it back in and used it.

So now, every single time I change a bobbin, it goes in the

Towa before it goes in the machine.

[Grammie]

I don't know how large the area is with the railroad tracks but I would use water soluable or disappearing marker. Mark over or TRACE STITCH LINE of that area before removing thread the then quilt it using ruler. This way you do not have to try and fit it with CQ if it awkward.

To me Railroad tracks I consider really large pop thrus and simple popups are much smaller.

Yes it seems she might be getting picky but correcting the problem although a pain is the right thing to do for your customer. I have had this happen but I saw it and repaired it before they picked it up so this was how I did it. You couldn't even tell what had happened.

Remember the trace the bad stitches outside the stitched lines before removing your thread and begin over the end of good stitches to get a lock on stitch.

Grammie

[Sue E.]

I have had this problem with Superior BOBs but not with the APQS prewound Coats & Clark bobbins. Luckily this was on my own quilt, but I stopped using my BOBs except for my practice quilts.