I have found in this variable weather time of year that the dampness in the air, whether it is warm and moist or cold and windy and dry with the house heat on, that the setting for my upper tension for free motion quilting changes accordingly. If it is cold outside and the house heat is on, I need to lower the tension a bit less than if it is warm and damp, or even cool and damp. The thread seems to absorb moisture, making it "fatter" and the tension is tighter then. Don't lock yourself into one setting and think it will be correct all the time. Yesterday my silk thread was at #2 and today I turned on the machine, set it at 2, and it was too loose. Tightened it up to 2.5 and it was fine. I also discovered that the color of the thread, all other things being equal, changes how the it affects the tension settings. Red is the worst, and black isn't great either. It's always easiest to use top and bobbin colors that are the same or blend coors if you can rather than have high contrast between the two. There is no reason you have to use one color on the back of the quilt. Change bobbin thread color to work best with whatever top thread color choice to get a "balanced" stitch. If you use a variety of top thread colors, and a medium tone backing fabric so the bobbin thread will show well, and change the bobbin thread to match the top thread colors, you will have a "reversible quilt" - go ahead and glue on some crystals, and you're all set for a two-sided quilt.
	Washing the quilt as the final step is important for many reasons, but one of them is that during all the steps of sewing, layering, marking, and quilting, not to mention binding, the quilt is dragged around and acquires some soiling. The soft yellow fabric was getting noticeably grungy during quilting, and I also found several chocolate stains, some oil drops here and there, and even a lip gloss glob when I was quilting and adjusted it and it hit me in the face. I pre-treated this stain with some water and Orvus on a tooth brush, and dry cornstarch brushed into an oil stain with a toothbrush and left overnight really gets most of it out so a very small amount of soapy water on a terry cloth will remove the rest. If I counted on the actual wash cycle to remove these stains, I'd have to use far too much soap and the entire quilt would be over-washed. Many quilts cannot be washed when finished, and for those, simple misting with water to let them block and smooth out works, as does a light steaming. With all the embellishments and hand painting, beading, etc., many times it is impracticable to wash a quilt made entirely for the wall or exhibit. Do what you think best. If it is something that will be used as a quilt, it is a good idea to be able to wash it at home.
	Needles breaking? Usually it is a case of moving the quilt too fast for the speed of the machine. I never break needles. Well, actually I broke two #60 needles by strange little accidents. The first broke when I had lifted out my machine and slapped the carrying handle down over the top thread, so when I began quilting the thread was stuck under the handle, and in 3 stitches stretched taut on the needle, bent it, and it broke instantly. The next time was shifting the quilt around to a new spot to quilt and one of the safety pins got hung up on the foot and the needle broke then too. Grrrr....I am a frugal Wisconsin quilter and I hate watching dollars with wings fly away! However, for most of you, needles break during free motion quilting. Then try to slow those hands down, and speed up the machine. That means slow smooth hands, and no jerks or fast movements, and a faster "sound" to the machine. Don't let the sound of the machine make you speed up your hands too. It is the combination that works. Sometimes changing one thing at a time is best, so slow the hands first and see how that works, then also speed up the machine a bit too.
	A Microtex Sharp needle or quilting needle rather than a Universal is much better for free motion quilting. It pierces cotton fabrics and batts and leaves a small hole so bobbin threads don’t pop up or show through. A universal needle is like a baseball bat with a rounded end and punches a large hole in your quilt that is permanent. For most machine quilting a #70 sharp works great. I use a #60 sharp with #100 silk thread. You may also try a Jeans/Denim needle, but a small one like a #70. If you use heavier thread, then use a bigger needle, like an 80 or higher. If your thread frays and breaks, you may need a bigger needle or a topstitch needle, that has a bigger eye. If you get skipped stitches, either the needle is too small, or the presser foot is too far away from the quilt when it is lowered because you have very thin, flat batting. Every so often a needle will have a roughness in the eye and fray the thread. This is a manufacturing problem, so try another needle, or one from a different pack.
	Almost always the top tension needs to be reduced (lower number) a bit for free motion quilting, to give the top thread a bit of slack so when quilting goes in various directions the thread will still be able to make a nice stitch without being pulled tight. Good tension on the thread means not only a beautiful stitch, admiring ooh's, but longevity for your quilt fabrics and the stitching itself.
	If you travel with your machine, treat it like a person. Let it ride inside the car and benefit from your heater or your air conditioning, and the nicer ride inside on a padded seat. Please seatbelt it in so it won't tip over or fly around if you have to stop suddenly. And maybe the back seat, so the airbag won't injure it . . . If it is very cold bring it in to room temperature before turning on. These are mostly ideas from students, as I rarely take my babies out and about, except for service. They love living in their own room in my house.
	Look ahead of the needle when doing free-motion quilting! There are only a few times when you want to look at the needle—stopping and starting, some double-stitching, tricky grids, etc. Otherwise it is like any other athletic endeavor. Find a point, aim at it, and sew towards it while you are looking at it. Your stitches will even out and you will feel in control. Sally Terry, a longarm quilter I met while taping American Quilter, suggests you "blur" your vision while quilting so you don't focus too intently on one spot or the needle. I agree - you look at the field, not at each little spot in it.
	Pin, pin, pin. The pins hold everything in place while you are quilting so that isn’t another worry for you. Even if you are not holding the quilt tightly, the pins are doing the job. I pin about 4-5" apart and judiciously around my designs. I usually remove them as I quilt the quilt, but you shouldn’t have to remove them until you have quilted an area. However, the great advantage over hand basting or tack basting with a gun is that you are able to move the pins if necessary before you cause a pleat or tuck. Re-position, re-pin. Recently I've noticed I can usually tell if someone is quilting on a spray basted quilt - it gets gunk on the needle and in the machine, and the quilt is very stiff to handle, and quilters who spray baste or use batting that irons into place tend to wear gloves to move the quilt. A softer quilt sandwich, with pin basting, lets you move it so much more easily and without gloves.
	I used the Clover white marking pen on a dark brown/black quilt. The pen is so easy to use, but a very light touch is needed. It almost glides on, doesn't pull on the fabric, and after a minute turns to a bright white fine line, very easy to see, and lasts during quilting. I used the iron on medium dry heat, just the tip, to go over the marks and they disappeared. One pen marked the whole top. Love it. There is also a new Pounce pad out with a marking powder that comes out with heat. I recently bought one of the Clover mini irons just for marking removal, or heat setting of permanent inks.
	When tracing designs with a blue wash-out marker through a stencil, don’t push so hard! I see thick dark bleeding lines that are just way too much chemical in your quilt, way too hard on the marker's tip, and way too difficult to know where to quilt in a 1/8"-wide line. Use a light gentle touch. The lines will be smoother and nicer to follow when quilting too. I find the lines from the extra fine markers disappear very fast, so mark and quilt right away. I like the fine markers for precision: grids, lines, tiny designs.
	Connect the openings in the stencil lines after you trace—make it a nice even line rather than broken up where the stencil bridges were. It will be much easier to quilt too. I just skipped doing this in a cable design and ended up with several way too fat when I was quilting away from myself and couldn't see the line.
	When I trace with a light box (my clear sewing table with a fluorescent light under it) I tape the design to the surface and position the quilt over it and clamp it down with my big office clips to keep it from shifting. To get a mirror image of a design for the other half of a border, for instance, just flip over the design and shine the light through it.
	When pressing pieced work, treat it like it is fragile pastry dough or pie crust! A light delicate touch with the iron—let the heat do the work, don’t mash it out of shape. Set the seam first with the iron, and then open it up and press from the right side. If I am pressing seams open, I press first lightly from the wrong side, then turn it over and press on the right side with starch. Starching helps stabilize "iffy" fabric use too - stripes cut bias or cross grain for design purposes, or silk fabric that stretches and frays. Pre-wash and starch it and use a light touch, minimal handling, and don't overuse the iron when pressing.
	A final pressing with a spritz of spray starch works great.
	The best way I have found to make my quilt slippery on the back for machine quilting is to press the backing with starch before layering the quilt. I use my own recipe from cornstarch and it works like silicone. (Recipe below.)
	Clean the entire bobbin/book area frequently. Every time I re-wind the bobbin, I take off the throat plate and brush the lint and debris out of the bobbin area. When I am machine quilting, I add a drop or two of oil to the hook area in the bobbin every 3 or 4 hours or when it starts sounding like it needs some lubricating. Be sure and run some thread through the machine and stitch on some practice fabric until the threads don't look oily before you begin on the quilt itself. If the thread looks much darker it means there is still excess oil and it needs to be cleaned up or worked out with stitching. A fine, low-lint thread for the bobbin helps a lot too, such as Aurifil #50 cotton, #100 YLI silk (my personal favorite), or Superior MasterPiece cotton. Mettler #60 and YLI Soft Touch work great too, but are a tad heavier.
	Now that the days are getting longer we have more good light for quilting. Give yourself an extra 30 minutes of quilting time a day - you'll be amazed what you will accomplish.
	Keep quilting! Your work gets better every day.

© 2008 Diane Gaudynski