tension woes

[SheepyBee]

Beginner question,

Started quilting first quilt, a baby quilt.  We are using a pantograph and magna glide bobbins.  Thought everything was going well until we found a large area under the quilt with tons of loops.  Maybe it happened at a bobbin change.  It seems like it is confined to one section of pantograph pattern. Can we rip out that area or do we need to rip the whole quilt? Will the needle punches disappear when the quilt is washed?  Also we floated the top, would it be better not to do that in case the quilt does not lay perfectly flat?

Thanks, Margie

[micajah]

Hi Margie,

Yes, you can rip out the bad stitches. The holes will close up, either when the customer washes it or you can sometimes run your nail over the hole, or spritz with water first then rub over the hole. Floating the quilt had nothing to do with it, It was either over spin of the bobbin, you were going too fast, or just a bad spot in the bobbin, Check the underside of your quilt frequently, esp. after a bobbin change, so you can catch it before it becomes a huge problem. I found that a bobbin genie helps a lot with bobbin over spin, 

Just keep practicing, it will get better.

Debbie

[HeidiP]

Tension issues are always fun.  Eventually you will find achieving perfect tension to be an art that you are very good at.  With practice you will get there much faster.

 

You didn't mention if it was excessive top thread you are seeing on the underside of the quilt, or excessive bobbin thread.  MagnaGlide bobbins are typically very consistently wound, but if tension is off, I would still take my bobbin out and verify the thread is in correctly.  MagnaGlide bobbins have a small magnet that offers some resistance when thread is pulled, so we remove the break spring in the bobbin case to use them.  It's also good to check for lint under the retaining finger.  My initial test for bobbin tension is to set the bobbin in the palm of my hand and lower my hand.  The bobbin case should "spider" down.  If the bobbin drops real fast, I would tighten the screw on the retaining finger by screwing it to the right, 2-3 minutes, if you imagine the screw head as a clock face.  If the thread seems too tight in the bobbin, turn the screw to the left to loosen, also in very slight adjustments.  (If you use MagnaGlide and other bobbins, it's just convenient to have a separate bobbin case for your MagnaGlide bobbins.  It's an inexpensive timesaver.

 

Check your upper thread path.  Is the first thread guide directly over the cone of thread.  Have you placed some batting in the thread guide to keep the thread from jumping out of the guide.  Do you have a "sock" over your spool.  With some slick or thin thread, a thread sock offers enough resistance that the thread will pull from the cone smoothly.  Check the remaining portion of your thread path.  Is it threaded correctly around the tension gage, over the tension spring and under the L hook? 

 

If all looks good, I like to test my thread tension with each bobbin or thread change.  I do this by laying a piece of fabric similar to the quilt top on the batting at the side of the quilt and test my tension.  Forward and back, side to side and circles to the right and circles to the left.  When all looks good, I continue quilting on the quilt top. 

[SheepyBee]

Thanks Heidi, I'll definitely remember to do a test with each bobbin change and appreciate all the other suggestions.

Margie

[Corey]

Heidi's input is great. Its going to be better, just practice maybe on a muslin a bit, it will help a lot in the long run.