Thursday, October 21, 2010

Feel the Tension

Or rather, check the tension. I'm spending naptime with my seam ripper instead of binding this quilt today. Boo. I happily squiggled my way, free motion, around the final border of the quilt without checking the tension on the underside. I had no problems on the rest of the quilt, just with the free motion. Anyone know how to fix this? Play around with the tension adjuster? Figure out how to adjust the tension on the bobbin? I need to dig out my manual I guess.

It's nice to know I'm not alone in the occasional dumb mistake. Thanks for sharing this funny story Jacquie. Even the president of the best Modern Quilt Guild in the country (just a bit biased here) can make mistakes. Thank goodness for that.

7 comments:

~Niki~ said...

oh i've done that before~more than a FEW times! I have a love/hate relationship with my seam ripper. lol.

Vicki said...

Oh no!

This happens on my newer machine, not my almost 30-year-old viking. It's the top tension you need to adjust, turning the knob to a higher number should help. Test it out on a sample quilt sandwich first!

Kirsten said...

I JUST had this happen to me this week. Turns out, I have to have the tension on the bobbin looser for free motioning than straight line quilting. I recommend playing with your tensions!

Anonymous said...

OH NO! SEAM RIPPERS .... they are not my friends!!!!! I've machine quilted a cushion on my machine... and that's it. Maybe one day when I get brave enough to try a whole quilt I'll have the same experience! Good luck with sorting out the problem!

two hippos said...

That happens to me almost every time I free motion. Usually fixing the top tension helps, but not always. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I've learned to always do my quilting on a test quilt sandwich before starting on the real deal. I wish I wasn't as good of friends with my seam ripper, but alas, I can't make him go away, 'cause I always end up needing him. :P

Anonymous said...

You can thread the finger on your bobbin case to increase bobbin tension.