The Quilt Skipper

quilting makes me skip for joy

Jenny K Lyon

Quilting makes me skip for joy

More about balanced thread tension

 

Great thread tension adds a level of beauty to your quilt: every stitch is a lovely arc in and out of the quilt, front and back. Poor tension distracts from the beauty of the quilt. I get so many questions about tension in class and there seems to be a lot of  confusion and angst about tension. It’s really not that hard! I created a 4 min YouTube video last week to explain the process of getting good tension:

I still have a few things to add about tension that were not in the video. Let’s start with what good tension looks like:

Good tension looks like this:

See how every stitch is defined?

Now, bad tension:

See how it’s just a flat line, you don’t see individual stitches and there are little loops sitting on top?

The sad thing is, the second photo, the “bad tension”, is the back of the first photo. This is common: one side looks good, but the other side shows the bad tension. Superior Threads has an excellent article here that explains tension as essentially a tug-of-war between the top thread and the bobbin thread.

Here’s a simple way to remember it:

The side with loops is too tight:
Top shows loops, decrease top tension.
Back side shows loops, increase top tension.

Going beyond the basics, here are a few pointers:

  • Above all, remember, adjusting tension takes time and patience. Chill!
  • Before you adjust tension, it is important to put your presser foot up. That releases the tension discs so that the thread can reseat itself properly.

  • Make sure your machine is threaded correctly first. Common threading issues:
    -Thread has wrapped around the needle.
    -Thread path is restricted. This could be something like the thread has wrapped around the spool holder, or, the thread has caught on a machine part or something else you added to the machine (add-on light, etc.)
  • If you adjust the tension dial and no change occurs in the tension, you may have lint between your tension discs. Gently “floss” your tension discs by slowly moving your thread back and forth through the tension discs. That should disloge any accumulated lint. Usually the real problem is icky, linty thread, oh my!

  • Yes you CAN use different weights of thread and/or different types of thread together (polyester, cotton, silk, etc.). I do it all the time. That will make adjusting tension more challenging, but if that is the look you want, go for it.

  • Make all your tension movements small and incremental. It’s easy to get confused when you over-adjust. Take your time.

  • In some situations, you may have to go to the bobbin to get perfect tension. I know, heresy. But, the perfect tension may be between 2 settings. My quilt, Morning Breeze was one of those. The perfect tension was between 2.25 and 2.0. Thread would pop up on either the bobbin side or the top side. I had to go to my bobbin and adjust the tension there. That’s easy too – adjust the tension screw “righty tighty” to increase tension and “lefty loosey” to decrease tension.

There you have it, balanced tension is worth it! I’ll be linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Friday where you can find lots of other great links.

 

 

Comments

  1. What causes the tension to change on the same line of quilting? It starts off balanced then somewhere on the line the back gets to tight and then farther down the line it is back to being balanced.

    • Usually that is “eyelashing”. The tension is good on the straight-away and loopy (pulled “eyelashes”) on the curve. If that is the situation it is a speed problem. Many quilters go faster on the curve and the bobbin can’t keep up, hence the “eyelashes”. Just make sure you go the same speed on the curve as the straight-away and it should clear up. Write me if that is not the case.

      • The reason going too fast (moving the fabric too fast under the needle on a domestic) causes this problem is that the needle can’t get out of the quilt sandwich fast enough so it’s bending — flexing — as those stitches are formed. The same thing can happen for a number of reasons on a longarm machine, where stitches look great when you move the machine in certain directions (usually from left to right or moving the machine towards your body) but then you get eyelashes from needle flex (bending) when you move the machine from right to left or away from your body. On a longarm, in addition to slowing down your machine, other things that might help would be moving up to a larger needle size. Tightly woven backing fabrics (like BED SHEETS!) cause extra needle flex and directional tension issues like Valerie is describing, too, which is why a lot of longarm quilters will refuse to work with bed sheet backings.

  2. You might mention that if you are concerned about getting the bobbin tension back to its starting position you can take a picture of the screw position before you move it. Move it in clock positions – if it is at 3/9 o’clock move it only to 2/8 o’clock or 4/10 o’clock first, test and then, if necessary, move it one more 12th.

    • I’m not a fan of that, just me. I don’t track what the original setting was, I just want good tension for each project and adjust accordingly. If someone prefers to keep track that way I think it’s worth getting another bobbin case, keeping that one pristine.

      • I agree with the idea of another bobbin case. I was addressing people who change their bobbin tension only once in a while and usually use the same threads, not like my friend, Jenny, who changes it with every thread change. Jenny also uses a lot of different threads for different effects. Nothing wrong with that!

  3. Another great post on the tension issues Jenny, many thanks for this one, I actually didn’t know the presser foot had to be UP before changing the tension – derr – how many years I been quilting? Just shows you never know everything do you!

    • Don’t be surprised – I went through Home Ec in high school, have sewn since the age of 6 and didn’t hear anything of this until maybe 10 years ago. I still have much to learn!

  4. Thanks Jenny for your reply. My situation isn’t going around a curve creating an eyelash. I was using my walking foot going to a point (V) then going back up. Between the top of the V and the bottom, my bottom tension tighten and didn’t fix itself until half way up the other side. I was following a zigzag pattern on a 4” border.

    • Just curious – were you in reverse or flipping your quilt for each part of the v? I am puzzled. Thinking on it….

      • I flip the quilt around each time I need to change direction. It is a king size quilt so it weighs quite a bit. Thanks

      • Welll I”m stumped. I can only conjecture. Given that it is a huge quilt in a domestic machine I can’t help but suspect it has to do with the way it’s feeding through the machine. I’d carefully examine how it’s feeding. What patience you must have! Just a thought, even if you are not into ruler work, if you did this with a ruler you would not be flipping at all! It’s worth a thought.

  5. Jenny thank you. I wondered if it could have been the weight or drag going to and from the point. I must have been “helping “ the walking foot feed the fabric through. Yes, I think it’s time to learn to use rulers and not keep flipping a quilt back and forth through a domestic machine.

    • Interesting Valerie, I bet it was the dragging of that huge quilt! Especially when doing straight lines, rulers are not that hard. There is a learning curve of course like anything else, but it is not a high skill set. Once you learn to confidently use rulers for your staight line work you will not be using the walking foot as much and you’ll get it done a LOT faster. The BEST ruler for straight line work is the Line Tamer because you CAN”T screw it up, your foot is in a channel. I have it in my shop or you can purchase elsewhere, but it is the only one I use for straight line work.
      https://quiltskipper.myshopify.com/collections/rulers/products/line-tamer

  6. Jenny, I’ll check it out. Are you going to expand your free motion classes and add ruler work? Thanks!

    • I’ve considered it but haven’t done that yet. I am not immersed in ruler work and there are many locally that are experts and teach. I may be adding straight line ruler work to existing classes as a skill.

  7. Hi Jenny
    I have a Bernina 770QE and I’m looking for a table. What brand is yours I like the way it looks. ? thanks