WMUTeach

I am seeking help from the pros on the Board and those who have solved this problem themselves. When using a simple straight stitch on a quilt sandwich, no problems smooth and even stitches without tension problems. When I reset for free motion quilting (dogs down, new needle, re-threaded the machine, changed the bobbin) it get skips in the stitching. It doesn't have a pattern to the skips. The skips are not on curves or in any predictable number of stitches.

Any ideas of what the problem could be? I have a quilt with a deadline and would like to get it finished.
Thank everyone.

peacebypiece

You might try loosening the top thread tension just a bit. Also anylize the speed at which you move the fabric and the length of the resulting stitches. Another variable would be to use a larger needle.

Tartan

My Bernina would sew on regular stitching just fine but would skip on FMQ, walking foot and not sew at all on Zig Zag. I hit something while sewing and broke a needle and it had to have the timing re-set at the shop. Hope you have better luck.

JLe

A very talented quilted suggested I use a finer thread in the bobbin and to speed up. That worked for me

Charming

One suggestion i heard was to shorten the stitch length when doing free motion (if you are using the default length of the machine 2.0 lower it to 1.5)
Good luck

PaperPrincess

I would use a larger needle. Try a jeans or topstitch.

snipforfun

If you re doing straight stitching its recommended to use a walking foot.

grammy Dwynn

Sometimes I will go back to basics ~ Clean machine (I have had skipped stitches when bobbin area is 'full' of lint). Re-thread both top and bobbin. When I'm quilting, whether with walking foot or FMQ, I use a Topstitch needle.

Prism99

Try leaving the feed dogs up. A lot of quilters do free-motion with feed dogs up; they do not *have* to be down on all machines. Leaving the feed dogs up will sometimes correct the skipped stitches problem.

Peckish

I second this. What size needle are you using? When I quilt, I use a size 16 or 18.