Troubleshooting Stitch Quality: Needles
You’re happily quilting along and all of a sudden your thread starts shredding.. or possibly even more aggravating, you start seeing skipped stitches. What the heck? Everything worked perfectly fine on the last quilt?!
There are few things in life more frustrating than stitch quality issues while machine quilting. (Well that is possibly not true - but if you are a longarmer, you get it!) If you have experienced these issues the phrase, “My Longarm is my friend and my enemy” can quickly become your mantra.
One of the biggest benefits to owning the Bernina QSeries machine is that you can use ANY (flat back) domestic machine needle in your Longarm! This means that we have the flexibility to adjust our needle type to our fabric and thread. So, if I load up a T-shirt quilt on my machine I can put a stretch or jersey needle in to quilt with. If I am working on a jeans quilt, I can use a jeans or denim needle to quilt with. This possibility really opens up doors for creative freedom when we use our machines! This also means that we may have to do a little playing around with needle types for our various fabrics - but that’s ok! It’s ok because that means I have no boundaries to what I can do with my Longarm. I don’t have to accept defeat if one type of thread or fabric gives my machine trouble - I can simply try a different needle.
If you consider that every time we load a new project onto our frame (or under our needle) we have a new combination of fabric, thread and batting. So just because my cotton top, poly batting and flannel backed quilt quilted just fine last week with my SoFine 50, 90/14 topstitch needle with a thread tension setting of 3.75 worked beautifully - it doesn’t mean that it will magically work again on a new combination of materials. Some may find this daunting, but I happily accept the challenge because I know that my machine can handle whatever I throw at her!
I have owned my Q24 for 5 years and have always been able to find a needle that will do the job I want to do, no matter the thread I choose to run through it. That being said, you will have to do some experimenting to find the right combination for your machine. I have done a bit of leg work for you though - so if you are a fellow Bernina Qseries owner, check out the video below for my needle troubleshooting tips!
I hope this helps those of you that have been searching for some solutions to common stitch quality struggles. If you have a system other than the Bernina, I hope it will still be useful, however it may not be as specific to your machine or type of needle system. At the end of the day I always tell folks that if I am determined enough to use a specific type of thread or quilt through some crazy combination I will find a needle (and thread and tension setting) that will do the trick for me! Keep on experimenting until the magic happens!
Happy Quilting,
Enjoli :)