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4 Responses to “Having an issue quilting with a Brother sewing machine?”
From what you’re describing, it does sound like a tension issue, and I know how frustrating that is to get right :-p I’m guessing your manual is not helping very much, or you don’t have one…There is support help on the Brother site, maybe you can find what you need there….good luck….susan
If you tried to adjust the bottom tension, you should probably take the bobbin case to a repair shop and have them adjust it back. It’s best not to try to adjust the bottom tension because they don’t give you a way to see how far you turned it or how to get it back.
After you gte your bobbin tension fixed, you could make a test square of your quilt and play with the top tension until it looks right. The machine is probably just being fussy because of the thickness of the material and batting.
.
Unless you know a lot about your sewing machine, you shouldn’t mess with the tension for that will throw everything off. If you bought your machine through a dealer, take it there and ask them to rejust your tension back.
sometimes your machine just needs a cleaning and it’s not tension at all. Next time, get your brush [that comes with your machine] take the plate off your machine and use that brush to gather up all the lint and dust that gathers there. Even remove the bobbin case and clean extra good under it and the case itself.
After you THINK you have cleaned it out good, tilt the machine forward and spay it out good with can air. Don’t forget to spay the air up the top of the machine also.
I have found, depending on your sewing, you should give your machine a good cleaning after 20 hours of sewing in order to keep the nice smooth stitching and less break down time.
Now for your quilt problem, get yourself a walking foot. That will help your fabric feed better thus giving you a much better finish project without puckers and such.
Hope all this helps a bit.
You’ve either got cruddlies in the bobbin tension holding the tension open, or you’ve loosened the bobbin tension, or the bobbin thread you’ve chosen is lighter than normal or you’ve managed to tighten the top tension. Or the bobbin tension ***** has hopped out and rolled down a floor *****. Or you’re using a different sized thread than the machine was set up for.
What sort of needle are you using, and how heavy (and what sort) is the batting? Is your sewing hook dinged up?
Quick test: Take the current thread off of/out of the machine entirely. Clean and oil. Rethread with common dressmaking weight thread (not a specialty thread), same thread top and bobbin. Sew on a doubled piece of muslin with a #12/80 sharp or universal needle. Does the stitching look good?
If it does, rethread with your quilting threads and try again. Still ok? Next, replace with the needle size you intend to use (I usually use a #14/90 quilter) and try again. Should be ok. Now add a scrap of batting between the muslins and try still again — this is generally where you need to play with the tension. Lower the top tension first… that will often produce a balanced stitch. If not, then you need to play with the bobbin case tension. Usual rules apply to the bobbin tension ***** — righty-tighty, lefty-looseny — and be gentle — no more than 1/8 turn at a time. If you decide to loosen the bobbin tension screw, always do it in a plastic bag, because the screws are very short and love to hop out of the bobbin case and roll off never to be seen again. IF YOU ADJUST THE BOBBIN TENSION FOR A PARTICULAR THREAD, before you start take a fine Sharpie marker and make an index mark on the bobbin case where the slot of the bobbin ***** is… that gives you a mark when you want to set the bobbin ***** back to “normal”. (If you do this sort of thing often, you may want an extra bobbin case or two so you can have one for “normal”, one for heavy threads and one for lighter threads, and save some futzing around.)
My experiences with Brother machines say that the tension is often very touchy, and you’re just going to have to be patient and do minute adjustments to get the stitch balanced on a quilt top.
BTW, when you take a machine in for a COA (clean – oil – adjust), it’ll come back to you balanced for a size 12/80 needle and the upper tension dial will be set so “4″ is the usual tension setting, unless you ask for something different. So I troubleshoot tension issues with a new #12/80 needle.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
kristy
From what you’re describing, it does sound like a tension issue, and I know how frustrating that is to get right :-p I’m guessing your manual is not helping very much, or you don’t have one…There is support help on the Brother site, maybe you can find what you need there….good luck….susan
December 20th, 2008 at 2:01 am
kathy
If you tried to adjust the bottom tension, you should probably take the bobbin case to a repair shop and have them adjust it back. It’s best not to try to adjust the bottom tension because they don’t give you a way to see how far you turned it or how to get it back.
After you gte your bobbin tension fixed, you could make a test square of your quilt and play with the top tension until it looks right. The machine is probably just being fussy because of the thickness of the material and batting.
.
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:57 am
ilcarr
Unless you know a lot about your sewing machine, you shouldn’t mess with the tension for that will throw everything off. If you bought your machine through a dealer, take it there and ask them to rejust your tension back.
sometimes your machine just needs a cleaning and it’s not tension at all. Next time, get your brush [that comes with your machine] take the plate off your machine and use that brush to gather up all the lint and dust that gathers there. Even remove the bobbin case and clean extra good under it and the case itself.
After you THINK you have cleaned it out good, tilt the machine forward and spay it out good with can air. Don’t forget to spay the air up the top of the machine also.
I have found, depending on your sewing, you should give your machine a good cleaning after 20 hours of sewing in order to keep the nice smooth stitching and less break down time.
Now for your quilt problem, get yourself a walking foot. That will help your fabric feed better thus giving you a much better finish project without puckers and such.
Hope all this helps a bit.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 pm
leacl
You’ve either got cruddlies in the bobbin tension holding the tension open, or you’ve loosened the bobbin tension, or the bobbin thread you’ve chosen is lighter than normal or you’ve managed to tighten the top tension. Or the bobbin tension ***** has hopped out and rolled down a floor *****. Or you’re using a different sized thread than the machine was set up for.
What sort of needle are you using, and how heavy (and what sort) is the batting? Is your sewing hook dinged up?
Quick test: Take the current thread off of/out of the machine entirely. Clean and oil. Rethread with common dressmaking weight thread (not a specialty thread), same thread top and bobbin. Sew on a doubled piece of muslin with a #12/80 sharp or universal needle. Does the stitching look good?
If it does, rethread with your quilting threads and try again. Still ok? Next, replace with the needle size you intend to use (I usually use a #14/90 quilter) and try again. Should be ok. Now add a scrap of batting between the muslins and try still again — this is generally where you need to play with the tension. Lower the top tension first… that will often produce a balanced stitch. If not, then you need to play with the bobbin case tension. Usual rules apply to the bobbin tension ***** — righty-tighty, lefty-looseny — and be gentle — no more than 1/8 turn at a time. If you decide to loosen the bobbin tension screw, always do it in a plastic bag, because the screws are very short and love to hop out of the bobbin case and roll off never to be seen again. IF YOU ADJUST THE BOBBIN TENSION FOR A PARTICULAR THREAD, before you start take a fine Sharpie marker and make an index mark on the bobbin case where the slot of the bobbin ***** is… that gives you a mark when you want to set the bobbin ***** back to “normal”. (If you do this sort of thing often, you may want an extra bobbin case or two so you can have one for “normal”, one for heavy threads and one for lighter threads, and save some futzing around.)
My experiences with Brother machines say that the tension is often very touchy, and you’re just going to have to be patient and do minute adjustments to get the stitch balanced on a quilt top.
BTW, when you take a machine in for a COA (clean – oil – adjust), it’ll come back to you balanced for a size 12/80 needle and the upper tension dial will be set so “4″ is the usual tension setting, unless you ask for something different. So I troubleshoot tension issues with a new #12/80 needle.
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