Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen Day 4 - FMQ sewing machine vs HQSS

When it comes to FMQ I would like to give a shout out to Leah Day. I learned to FMQ by watching her videos and taking Craftsy classes with her. She has a really great teaching style, and her designs are free on her website, along with "how to stitch" videos.

FMQ done on Husqvarna Emerald - Leah Day lollipop tree pattern

When I started free motion quilting I upgraded my Singer, bought a machine with feed dogs, read a book, and expected to learn how to do it fairly easily. How hard could it be? Well, hardish it turned out. Thread "bird nested" or "eyelashed", stitches were really hard to control, and I was either racing along at 80 miles an hour, or negotiating a tricky turn like an elderly chicken crossing a busy highway. My Husqvara also gave me endless issues with the free motion feet. Their design is a bit silly and the top of the foot would get a stress break really easily. At $50 a foot this was a big deal, and the dealer just shrugged and sold me a new one.

The one on the left works better than the one on the right!!

 Once I'd found Leah's site, I stopped buying feet and wound an elastic band around the top of the broken foot and it worked better than before. I also invested in a Supreme Slider, and that was a game changer. The silicone surface gave me sufficient "glide" that I finally began to feel I might be able to master this FMQ thing. I started using Bobbin Genies too, and they seemed to help with bird's nesting on the back. I never got to terms with gloves though. I have 2 different brands, and frankly, I can't quilt with either of them. I need to feel the fabric.

Then I bought a Bernina and, partly because it is such a great machine, and partly because I had been practicing, FMQ seemed to have a lot less thread issues etc. but I was still using the Supreme Slider. Actually it was my third, because I ripped one, and sewed through another one. When they say wash after each use, that is advice worth taking... I still struggled with visibility though. I always felt I was craning my neck to see what the heck I was doing.

FMQ done on Bernina 350 PE

And now I have the Sweet Sixteen. I know it's early days but I do feel a little as though I'd died and gone to heaven. No feed dogs for the up/down controversy. No peering around the machine to see my work area, no wondering how to get more light where I'm working. No need for a Supreme Slider, Bobbin Genie etc.

Now the only thing I have to get my head around is that all the controls are on the control panel. I do still find myself looking for the lever to engage the machine, and the hand wheel to drop the needle into the fabric! And I wish there was a thread snipper like on my Bernina.

Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen Day 3

So...at the lesson last night I found out that I had still managed to mess up the threading! I had gone through the viewing hole for the needle instead of the thread hole in front of the needle. I thought it looked weird... Which brings me to another point when considering a new machine: to buy online or from a local dealer. I did think about buying online, but after sales service is important to me, not least because I am clearly not that good at reading directions (ahem). Face to face trouble shooting is really important to me, and that's why I went with a local dealer.

Once I had rethreaded the machine for the third time, I got even better stitches. Still some pull back of top thread on the back of the work, but much, much better than yesterday's sample. What do they say about the problem with the machine generally being about 12 inches in front of the machine??

The lady who did my lesson attributed the front thread on the back on yesterday's sample to a tension issue. I looked at the tension on the dealer's machine and theirs is set to 175!!! Apparently each machine has its own internal consistency though. When I loosened my tension to 400, the bobbin thread came through the front, so I'm going to keep mine in the 400s for Isacord. 

I'm wondering if the thread pull through isn't due to stitch speed and density too. From the samples above you can see that the most thread pull though came in the heaviest stitching, and on the curves of other shapes. Where the stitches were most consistent, the stippling, there is no pull through, and on the little swirls on a stick, a stitch I am very familiar with, there is very little too. 

Testing tension on the same pattern

 Somewhere between 435/440 seems to give me nice consistent stitches. Still a little green showing on the top of the circle where the most thread build up is.

 And the more I practice the easier it gets - who knew?? 

When I stitched echo lines like this on my Bernina, I always got longer stitches going away from me. The greater visibility on the Sweet Sixteen makes it much easier to sew back and forth, not turning and always going in the same direction, and I can't really tell which lines were sewn coming towards me and which going away from me. I did find the needle and thread distracting when sewing away from me, they go so jolly fast! I think that's something that won't bother me for long though. 

So day 3 and still a fan. Now to find some patterns to use on a project.