Packing and fixing tension
I’m packing for my trip to Denver this week. I get to mix business with pleasure as I will visit my Sister and Brother-in-Law on Wed-Fri followed by a lecture and workshop for the Colorado Quilting Council on Sat and Sun. The weather is a little iffy but I’m stoked.
Someone is a little less excited about my visit. Poor neglected Basset Boy fell asleep guarding my suitcases.
I had an interesting problem this week. I am working a whole cloth quilt and have been quilting the background all week. It has been fabulous to do mostly quilting all day for a week! But I ran into a tension problem:
Ignore all the lint. See the tension issue just above my fingernail? It was fine for most of the way and then every once in awhile it would go tight on top. I knew it was not a speed issue, I knew it was not thread, tension, needle, fabric or batting. The bobbin was wound well and feeding evenly. I tried different spool caps on top. It seemed to be feeding evenly. I changed needles from a 60 to a 70, even though I have quilted acres of whole cloth with 100 wt silk thread and a 60 needle with no issues.
I had a hunch it was the thread delivery somehow. I had my cross-wound mini-cone of Superior’s Kimono correctly positioned horizontally, feeding off the top of the spool. I had tested different end caps. There was nothing obviously wrong.
I tried putting the thread upright, feeding off the side and that did the trick! Who knew? Superior is clear that their cross-wound spools are to be placed so that the thread comes off the top, not the side.
But in this case, it needed to come off the side. I don’t know why and technically, this is incorrect. But it worked so I’m sticking with it.
Sometimes you have to go with your gut and try the “wrong” thing to see if it works.
It’s totally random to add this photo, but I had to. You may have noticed I am not the best photographer. It is so hard to catch the beauty of my Tri-Color European Beech with its bright pink, white and green leaves. It’s a tree that generally lives under the canopy of other trees and in this case it’s protected by the house and other trees. It is now over 20′ tall and gorgeous!
I’ll be linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday. I’ll have tales to tell about my Colorado trip next week. I know I will be going to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum that currently has their bi-annual men’s exhibit up-can’t wait!
I think I need to take one of your classes. Tension can be a big issue for me. I also love your European beech. The color changes and composition of this photo are fabulous. I see an art quilt here.
I love that tree! Have you looked at the Superior Threads website for their videos and articles on tension? I think the main thing is that it can take time and patience to get it just right. But it’s worth it. You can totally do this Nanette!
Thanks for the update— fun to read .
You’re welcome Sally!
I recently made a presentation the Houston group about tension. In my previous presentation, I explained the proper way to wind a bobbin. The bobbin tension can increase for just a few turns then return back to the set tension. For the techies in the group, I even used terms like centripetal acceleration and r time omega squared. Of course, I also had some simple diagrams to explain the problem.
I recommended to the group that they wind the bobbin at the lowest possible speed.
If this problem persists, I would recommend that you wind the bobbin at the lowest possible speed.
I had been told through BERNINA to wind at a slow speed so I do wind at slow speed–and it takes forever to wind a bobbin! In this case changing spool orientation fixed my problem but I am intrigued by your technical explanation of winding the bobbin slowly. I do that, but did not know why. Thank you for the explanation Georgina!