Today’s Topic: FMQ Adjusting Tension
Welcome to Week 2 of our 2021 Quilt-a-Long, Even Better Machine Quilting
This FREE multi-week tutorial is based on my books available in my Etsy shop: LoriKennedyShop
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Quilters!
Did the leprechauns come to YOUR house last night?
When my kids were young, St. Patrick’s Day began like Christmas morning. Everyone would run down the stairs to see what mischief the leprechauns had carried out in our house. Usually chairs were upended, the milk and Oreos were turned green. Even the toilet water was dyed green! But the leprechauns always left a treat of gold-wrapped candy coins and a toy.
Leprechauns are both– nice and mischievous…
Just like our sewing machines…
FMQ and Tension
While I love my sewing machines, they can be mischievous, especially when free motion quilting.
Free motion quilting, by its very nature, creates more tugs and pulls on the machine and often causes tension problems.
In addition, we often use different thread weights in the top and bobbin-which requires tweaking the factory-set tension.
Learn to Adjust Tension
One of the most important FMQ skills to learn is how to adjust sewing machine tension.
No matter how perfectly you quilt motifs, if the tension is not right, the motif will not look beautiful.
Pull out your sewing machine manual right now and mark the pages on tension!
Develop YOUR Eye for Good Tension
Whenever you free motion quilt, pay careful attention to what the stitches look like. Develop your eye for good tension.
Then develop your eye for great tension.
Sometimes, a small tweak can make the tension and the stitch look even better!
Test YOUR Tension
Your assignment today is to create stitch samples of different tension settings. Most modern machines can be adjusted to create a perfect stitch by only changing the top thread tension-so we will limit our practice to top tension adjustments only.
Set up your machine and quilt a few rows of wavy lines at the machine’s factory setting. Use a pen to mark the tension setting.
Lower the top tension and stitch a few more rows.
Keep lowering the top tension and stitching rows until the stitches look bad, or you reach the limit.
Repeat the exercise by increasing the top tension.
Which Looks Best to YOU?
Choose which tension looks best. There is usually a range of values.
Turn the quilt over to make sure the tension looks okay on the back.
Stitch with the tension that looks best on the top, AND still looks okay on the back.
(When I teach workshops, I’ve observed almost all machines stitch best when the upper tension is lowered slightly. )
YOU must decide what looks best for your machine, with your thread and batting every time you stitch.
Don’t bother keeping a book of “best tension settings”. Humidity, batting, fabrics, etc…everything effects tension so it must be tested every day!
Today’s Assignment
Find your sewing machine manual and mark the pages related to tension adjustments.
Create a (Green for St. Patrick’s Day?) quick quilt sandwich and stitch a few wavy lines. Mark the tension setting.
Lower the tension settings incrementally and stitch a few wavy lines. Mark each setting.
Repeat by increasing tension settings.
Inspect the samples carefully. (Front and back)
Choose the BEST stitch tension for today’s work.
Fill a quilt sandwich with your favorite doodles and motifs.
Check out these St. Patrick’s Day motifs on BERNINA We All Sew (include video)
May YOUR house be too small to hold all your friends…
And your closets too small to hold all your fabric!
Happy St. Paddy’s!
Lori O’Kennedy
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com. Thank you!
Visit my Etsy shop: LoriKennedyShop for all of my books! They are ALL bestsellers!
12 comments
Jane
Thank you. I do have the ruler foot, the first set of Bernina rulers and Angela Walters rulers
Jane
why do you use this foot vs the BSR foot?
Lori Kennedy Quilts
I learned to quilt before the BSR (stitch regulator was available so I learned to control the speed to control stitch length. Many quilters do not have the stitch regulator options so I teach without. Also if you ever plan to do ruler work you will not be able to use the stitch regulator.
Jane VanWijnen
Thank you. So the open toe embroidery foot is your foot of choice for the Bernina 770qe? And I am starting to learn ruler work so do need to learn to control sppeed so as to control stitch size
Lori Kennedy Quilts
Yes. You will need to practice timing your hand movements with the machine speed to get the desired stitch length. For ruler work you need a different foot.
Marilyn
Where and when do our questions get answered? Marilyn
Lori Kennedy Quilts
Hi Marilyn. I will try to answer questions here. Sometimes I miss questions or get behind. Sorry!
Nancy
Kind of a newbie here and I also find the whole “adjusting the tension settings” very confusing with the raising and lowering and how it correlates to the number on the tension gauge. When you say raise/increase the tension, does that mean increasing the number on the dial or the screen? (Goes for lowering it too)??
Lori Kennedy Quilts
For most machines you increase the top tension by setting to a higher number.
Higher number mean higher tension.
Check your owners manual but the important thing is to become comfortable with adjusting the tension on your machine and developing your eye for what changes to tension look like.
Bobbie
Love your Leprechaun hats! Thank you for the great advice! I had done a test for tension when I bought my 770QE, thinking I could use the setting indefinitely. Now I know better and will test every time.
V. Tempel
Hard to tell in photos…what are the differences in the last sample with three examples…cannot tell if the bobbin thread is showing. The last example looks smoother but is that the only difference? Thank you!
Lori Kennedy Quilts
It’s very difficult to see in photos. That is why I recommend developing your own critical eye. See what you like best!
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