I must admit, quilting this quilt has been an extremely frustrating experience. I thought that I had solved the problem with a larger needle, but the thread continued to break literally every 30 seconds. After I realized that the needle wasn't the problem, I spent a long time on the phone with my machine dealer in Kamloops, and he patiently walked me through every potential problem. We quickly discovered that my bobbin tension was too tight (I didn't even know that it could be adjusted!), so I was hopeful that the issue was finally resolved. Not so! Even with a larger needle, and the correct tension on both the bobbin and the top thread, I realized that my Grand Quilter hates Mettler thread.
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| Results of my picking! |
I decided to try quilting the quilt from the other side with my go-to Aurifil thread, and of course, it quilted like a dream. The only time I had to stop was when my bobbin ran out! Unfortunately, it meant a few days spent unpicking all of my stitches made with the other thread. I had only quilted 12 blocks, but it still took forever to unpick all of those stitches.
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| Beautiful thread....just not for my machine! |
I am officially donating the almost full spool of Mettler thread to my quilt guild, hopefully someone has a machine that doesn't eat it. And from now on, I'm sticking to what I know works.
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| Aurifil Thread |
10 comments:
Polyester Gutermann. Gasp. I know it's quilting heresy, but it's great. I do use the cotton if I want more noticeable quilting, but it's heaps lintier. Is that a word? But I tried it because Elizabeth Hartman uses it, and well, she knows best, right??
Bought my Grand Quilter a few years ago from someone who hated the machine. When I got home I found out why it gave her so much trouble: wrong size needle and Mettler thread. Have since used Guttermann and King Tut with no problems, but my go-to thread for piecing and quilting is Superior So Fine and Bottom line.
Aurifil all the time
I've had that happen before, so I can feel your pain. I'm glad your Aurifil worked. I haven't used it for quilting, but it seems great for piecing. I use So-Fine for quilting. It is a very thin poly, and it seems to work fine for me.
I'm glad you figured it out. I like to use the King Tut thread for machine quilting.
My machines hate Mettler. HATE it. I use mostly cotton Gutterman and sometimes Aurifil.
I have a Juki that I use for free motion and it doesn't do well with anything poly, so I just use Aurifil, which I prefer anyway. I'm glad you figured out your issues.
Isacord!
what a shame - such pretty thread. I have a machine that hates Sulky, so I can appreciate your pain!
I haven't tried Aurifil yet. But I keep hearing amazing things about it. I know it sounds terrible, but whenever I've looked at it, I end up opting for something cheaper. Do you buy yours locally, or order it online?
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