Blackberry

I have been having trouble with my Brother CS6000i making a thunking sound when quilting and especially when putting on the binding. I have been reading about how the size of the needle and the thread size can make a difference. And also how the tension might need to be adjusted. Now my question, why would you need to adjust the tension if the stitches are locked together tightly. I thought the tension was used to get the stitches to lay together nicely. If the top thread is laying on the top of the fabric or the bobbin thread is laying on the bottom then the tension needs to be adjusted to get them locked together. How does adjusting the tension help in quilting if the stitches are locked together nicely.

MellieKQuilter

Mine did that as well, my needle was. Tad dull, and I had quite a bit of lint build up under the bobbin case. Sounds much better after cleaning and changing the needle.

QuiltnNan

you are right about the tension. if the stitches are formed properly with none of the top showing on the bottom and none of the bottom showing on the top, then there is no need to adjust the tension. as the previous poster suggested, it may be a dull needle.

Holice

I lengthen the stitch slightly when machine quilting. This give a bit more room for the extra thickness of fabric and batting.

sylviak

Try changing the needle...and use a larger needle for quilting or binding. I use a "jeans" needle (90) for quilting. When binding, I use my walking foot and it is much easier. Also, clean lint from the bobbin area. It doesn't sound like a tension problem to me.

C.Cal Quilt Girl

Different machine than a Brother, but has been acting strange, thunking, not pulling fabric, thread jumbles, looking in from the bobin area looked OK pulled the plate and OMG, removed bottom cover, and poor baby was full of enough lint to what seemed like stuff a pin cushon !!
Little brushing, and she runs much better, is back to pretty stitches.... I do make stitches longer when hemming thru many layers. Good Luck !!

Blackberry

I clean the bobbin area after every bobbin is used up. I also use the walking foot to attach the binding. I will try a long stitch length and a larger needle. I have tried size 16 and it didn't seem to help much. I am also using the low loft polyester batting which I think is about 1/8" thick. I have a small piece of WN. I will try that and see if it helps. Maybe I don't even know what the machine is supposed to sound like when it is sewing thru 7 layers of fabric. It just seems to me like it makes an awful clunking noise which sounds like it it laboring too hard to get thru that many thicknesses of material.

MaureenM

I don't think its tension either. Sounds like you need a larger needle than 16. That is not large enough for 7 layers. Even with cleaning out after empting the bobbim, using loft polyester batting you may be getting alot of lint in the bobbin area and need to clean it out.