Shouldn't your stitches look as good on the back as they do on the front? I've always been terrible at setting the tension. I always just play with it till I get the right thing. And maybe that's what you do?? For my new free motion quilting foot, I set the tension and width to 2.5 like my book said. I've also played with moving that around. Still no luck.....any suggestions from my great blogging buddies?
Front of practice quilting..
Back....
Today 5/2/09 I've been practicing more with this, and I've got a big panel I'm practicing against. However, I was going to free motion both sides, but seperatly, cause in no way will it line up. Well, wouldn't you know, because these backs won't be seen, the stitching looks great. Think I finally found the correct setting, 4 & 5. yah
I am NOT good at free-motion quilting, so I will hope someone else who is good at it will see this question and answer for BOTH of us!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of machine are you using? I don't know much about setting the tension.. and only have old machines, but I just got my Singer 301 back from my service man and he said I should leave my tension set on 3. It seems to be working ok.. and I just started free-motion quilting myself. :-)Your top looks nice.
ReplyDeleteI too struggle with this problem. I have the Janome 6125, and discovered recently that I need to raise my upper tension significantly, ~8, to get a decent stitch on the back. Still takes practice, and I certainly need it myself, but it's a lot better now that I discovered this little bit of info. I would suggest doing wavy lines, instead of stippling at the beginning, until you get comfortable with it. That's what I've been doing, and my experiences have been much more pleasant.
ReplyDeleteI have an excellent video on my site that helped me a lot.
do you have a drop in bobbin or a front loading bobbin? If your bobbin is in the front it looks like you need to tighten your bobbin case.....You definitely have a tension problem.......You need more tension is what is happening but the way to fix it depends on where the bobbin is...Melinda
ReplyDeleteKeep working with it. One of the difficult things about machine quilting is that the tension has to be reset, usually, with every quilt due to the differences in fabric, batting and thread. Tension is tricky.
ReplyDelete