Tension

    Once you set your machine up for free motion tension is next.Samples are one of the most important things to understand when free motion quilting. Let's look at a few items that would be good best practices for every quilter.  Tension is not always the easiest to understand or get just right. 


 1. Thread your machine with red thread in the needle and black thread in the bobbin. 

 2. Make a quilt sandwich using fat quarter, with a low loft batting and basted together with water soluble thread or a long basting stitch.
 3. Now its time to practice your quilting.  Move in every direction, left to right, circles, corners and keep moving in to test the tension.  
 4. When you look at the fabric, thread and stitches do you like what you see? Look at the image and see if your stitches are balanced. 
 5. If you do not like the look of the back you may need to change the top thread.  When the back of the quilt looks bad it is most often the top thread. Change the to thread in small increments unless you have a long arm. A long arm is where you will find the tension is changed in larger increments. 
 6. When the top is not pretty check your bobbin tension.  On my long arm I change the bobbin more that I do the top thread.  You will find what works best for you.  

   Happy Quilting with controlled tension!
    Denise