Tension
I've had a few issues with the tension on my Husqvarna lately, a repeat of the problems I had when I very first got the machine. In floating FMQ mode when quilting the washi tape quilt, the top thread was frequently visible on the back. Problem is, the machine automatically sets the tension depending on the stitch and the fabric type you tell it you are using. I almost remedied this by tightening the top tension and using a thicker needle, but I have to dial up the tension from 4.6 to 7 every time I switch the machine on which seems a bit too much, and definitely not a "slight" adjustment.I was going to buy a new bobbin holder and have one for piecing and an adjusted tension one for quilting, but then it continued to have a problem when I moved onto piecing. Even with the feed dogs back up and the material set back from from heavy to medium, the stitches weren't as defined on the back.I'm now quilting the Bowie quilt and I really couldn't have this happening again with the bottom thread being ecru and the top being black, so I decided to give it another clean and slacken off the bobbin tension by a quarter of a turn...
Looks fine except for the odd blip.... BUTThe top thread (Aurifil- bottom thread is Bottom Line, only quality threads as it's a show quilt) keeps snapping. I've read up on this and it suggests stitch plate issues (but I just put on my brand new straight stitch plate, still I'll swap it back over and see if it helps) or that the bobbin thread is too tight.Since it was too tight before and I slackened it, I'm a bit puzzled- I turned the tensioner a quarter turn to the left- lefty loosey, righty tighty, right?So next job is to re-thread the machine, change the stitch plate back and put a new needle in, just in case there's a burr in the eye that is splitting the thread. The second thing to try is switching it from floating FMQ to spring motion FMQ and see whether the foot doesn't mind that mode. If that doesn't work then I guess I'm changing the tension back again. Why do machines have to be so temperamental? Anyone else dare to touch the bobbin tension?Also I've just switched my spool around as it's supposed to unwind anti-clockwise. It looks wrong to me but we'll give it a go.
I may just wait for the weekend and use my darning foot with spring motion when Wendy has finished with it and get one with something else in the meantime (it's not like I don't have a ton of other stuff I could be doing)- I seem to remember when I bought that foot , all of these quilting tension issues disappeared...Anyone else with a Viking machine had noticeable variations in stitch quality between spring motion and floating modes?