OK- this is reassuring. (The things you learn!) Unfortunately I no longer live on the same continent as where I bought my machine so I can't go back to that dealer, but it is high time I found a Brother dealer near where I am now anyway!

You'd think!

With this history I am scared to touch anything on Little Miss temperamental.....

But thank you for the suggestion. It makes sense.

QUOTE=Tartan;5834558]I sometimes have to adjust the tension in my bobbin case between quilting with my walking foot on my quilt sandwich and FMQ. I do have adjust my bobbin tension between regular piecing and quilting on a quilt sandwich. As mentioned though, if you know where the bobbin screw STARTED before you adjusted it, you can move it back if that is not the problem.[/QUOTE]

I never adjust my tension on my Babylock. The only time I had a problem with the bobbin tension I took my machine back to the dealer & they adjusted the tension. Haven't had a problem since. They told me to never adjust the tension.

Do you mean never to adjust the bobbin tension?

I suggest talking with your dealer before trying to adjust the bobbin tension - it sounds like it may be a machine problem that should be checked out by a tech. My machines don't need to have bobbin tension adjusted for FMQ or for anything. As stated in a separate thread on the subject. extra thread on the bottom usually means a problem with the top tension. On one machine I've seen, it turned out to be a problem that had to be fixed by the company doing a retrofit.

If I understand you correctly, you had beautiful tension with your regular foot, then changed to the darning foot and had terrible tension. If you change back to the regular foot, is the tension still good? If so, what is the difference between these two feet? Are they both made for your machine, do they have the same clearance over the fabric, does one of them act "special" in any way (like a walking foot)? I just can't comprehend why changing feet would make a difference in your stitch, so I understand why you're mystified. The only explanation I can come up with is that something else changed when you changed feet, such as the thread hopped out of a thread guide. So my advice would be to go back to the first foot and start over. At least you're approaching this one step at a time.

Well...... the first time I switched back to the regular foot, it went back to being perfect again.

Then my kids noticed I seemed to have stopped working on what I was doing and sent in one of the bears to ask for a new blankie. What do you know- I put a simple hem on an old piece of fabric and ran up a little pillow to match - the fabric is a bit stretchy and got dragged down the needle hole- by the time I screwed off the plate to get it out the whole kit and caboodle is off kilter. So maybe today is just not my day..... but overall yes the tension was still good when I switched back immediately after the wonky experience.

The regular piecing foot came with the machine and the darning foot is a Brother foot, bought where I got the machine. The clearance is different though. The darning foot, even in the down position, does not sit on regular fabric like the piecing foot does. I was wondering about that! It does sit down on the sandwich though..... I think this line of enquiry merits further thought!

I find that Diane Gaudynski's books on machine quilting are a great resource for dealing with tension problems - I recommend them even if your machine quilting is much more simple than hers.

I had the same problem as you with my Viking Lily. It was scary the first time I adjusted the bobbin tension, but the results were so worth it. You don't have to make a large adjustment, just a little turn. If you can get one, buy a second bobbin case so you don't have to keep doing it.

Good luck!

Janet

when you fmq you control the stich tension lower the feed dogs if you can lower the speed on the machine now use needle down position on a practice sandwich start sewing and moving the fabric

Thanks- I'll look for one on amazon.

Now, a stupid question.... what do you mean by the bobbin case? I have a drop in bobbin- there is a bobbin housing but for the life of my I can't see how it could affect the tension.