Skipping stitches

[bridesmom]

My Brother is acting up. I am finding while I am free motion quilting it is missing stitches, so I tried slowing down alot, still misses, changed the needle, cleaned it, rethreaded thread and bobbin, changed bobbin, still skipping. But when I sew in regular mode, straight stitch, with feed dogs up, it's just fine as long as the needle is in straight stitch middle position. I'm kind of thinking it needs to go in for a realignment, anyone have any other great ideas before I head off to the shop tomorrow??

[Mom of Six]

Boy I must be tired! I was trying to remember you telling us about your brother as in sibling when I started to read. I guess it is time for bed! Good luck with the machine Laura.

[HeyJudee]

What is the weight of the thread that you are using? size of needle? If thicker thread (40wt), try a larger needle 90/14 or a top stitch needle. Have you used this type of thread before or is it a new brand that you are trying? When I googled, they suggested slowing down, or changing the needle. Have you tried using thread that you've used successfully before? Do you have a practice sandwich to try to see if it does it with other threads too? Oh and one post suggested checking the needle position. She had changed hers to the centre when the default position was the left position. Does it skip when you are doing straight lines or mostly when making curves? If it is curves, you're probably going too fast so try slowing down as you do the curve.

When I checked Diane Gaudynski's web site she said that it is usually that the needle is too small "or the presser foot is too far away from the quilt when it is lowered because you have very thin, flat batting"...???

Don't know if this will help...

[bridesmom]

Well, the thread was a cotton quilting thread with regular polyester cotton in the bobbin. It had been fine for most of the quilt, just decided to act up in the last 10 minutes of quilting (probably after about 3 hours). It started when I was free motioning backwards in a straight line, then it wouldn't go sideways without skipping either. Going straight forward it skipped a few stitches but not as much as the other 2 directions. Needle was and is in center position. Tried it with polyester cotton thread up and bottom, still did it. Using an 80/12 topstitch needle. This morning I went down and tried it again, and it worked perfectly fine. When I had the regular foot on and put on my binding today it was sewing perfect. Think maybe it was as tired as I was and just started to do stupid things last night. I still will take it in though next week, as it's been almost a year. I'm done the quilting for a bit. i have some UFO's to get done before I start any more projects.

[HeyJudee]

It had been fine for most of the quilt, just decided to act up in the last 10 minutes of quilting (probably after about 3 hours)..... Think maybe it was as tired as I was and just started to do stupid things last night.

Yep...after 3 hours....anything can happen. Maybe you were moving the quilt too fast because you were tired and wanted to get it done??? Moving too fast was one of the main issues mentioned when I was searching for skipped stitches. Glad you were able to get it finished.