CoverBuddy

Hello, I'm a new quilter and learning how to free motion quilt. Things start out smooth and flows well and then all of a sudden the top thread tension becomes tight. I stop, re-thread and start quilting again. Things are smooth and flowing and then all of a sudden the thread becomes tight again. Has anyone experienced this and knows what's happening and how to rectify this? I'm sewing on a Viking Topaz 30. Thanks for your help.

PaperPrincess

Does the thread break, or just become tight? In either case, don't just pull the thread out and rethread. See if you can follow the thread path back to the spool and see if it's jumping out somewhere.

CoverBuddy

No it doesn't break. I follow it back and it's tight between the thread tension discs.

Tartan

If it gets tight between the tension discs, check to make sure there isn't a scrap of thread caught in there. If the tension discs are clean, change to a different thread and see if that fixes the problem. If it does, the thread itself may have knots or imperfections in it.

slbram17

I just got some tips on tension. Maybe this can help.
http://theinboxjaunt.com/2015/01/29/...uence-tension/

QuiltE

Talk about a current blog post .... thanks for posting it here for us, SLBram!


CoverBuddy ... Great suggestions in the link that SLBram has given.

When you say you re-thread ... are you re-threading both top and bottom? and by taking the bobbin and spool off and starting the process fresh. If still with problems, try a totally different spool/bobbin. When I was having similar problems recently, I discovered that the thread was coming off the spool, and building static, then the thread was flipping on its own, to somewhat cause a tangle as it fed thru. It took a lot of observation, before I figured that out.

Another suggestion ... be sure you have all your settings correct on your machine ... the newer machines can be very finicky if we miss one. Not the machine's fault and totally operator error, at that point!

CoverBuddy

Thank you so much for all of your feedback. It was all the above. There was a little piece of thread stuck in the discs and I was using the Coats and Clark embroidery thread instead of the Robison-Anton. I thought I had gotten rid of all the Coats thread because I found that this Viking machine will not work properly with it. It's sewing like a charm now. Thanks again.

Onebyone

Once I figured out the balanced stitch, my fmq has improved 100%. It took a lot of practice swatches with different tension settings for me to suddenly go Oh, that is what it is. LOL