I am really stumped about this: I love love love my 440 QE...it's 5 years old now and I do push it really hard. I have not had tension problems until the past few months....we moved cross country (CA to NC), machine was in storage for 6 months while we had our house on the market (goodness...don't want to have anything sitting around that looks like REAL people live in a San Fancisco house! oh no.) Couldn't wait to un-pack it. I do a LOT of free-motion - and I stitch through shellaced matka, linen, etc. before I paint with oils or acrylics, and then stitch again. hmm...maybe that's the problem, but I have done this since day one (floor-cloths, etc.) with no problem.
I am wondering if it was damaged in transit...between moving to short-term storage and then to the moving van for the cross-country trek. I marked the box "FRAGILE - Drop this and I will hurt you!!"
Anyway - the free-motion art work always rocks...and then when I go back to normal quilting, lately i cannot get the top tension right. It looks okay when I stitch through heavy layers of linen and batting, but if i am just piecing lightweight cottons....it's bad. and it doesn't matter how I adjust it. I change needles frequently to fit the thread and the fabric I am using. The bobbin tension always looks great - so I am stumped. I keep re-threading, changing needles, adjusting the pressure dial to compensate for very thin fabrics, etc.
I took it to the local Bernina guru here and when I got it back, the stitches looked good. Then I stitched through a lot of thick fabric, paint, burlap, etc. and now it is wonky again on normal fabric.
I know I am hard on this machine, but I baby it...oil it frequently, clean everything I can reach - like every other day.
Anyone else have this issue? Maybe I should just have a machine dedicated to the art stuff and one to the normal quilting....but I really can't afford that.
Any thoughts? I am very careful to cut the thread mid-point each time and pull the bottom half through the needle and the top half out of the guides (I think Terry White mentioned this in one of her books).
Any help? thoughts? I am using Bottom Line almost exclusively in the bobbin no matter what I do - and lately it is snarling like a doberman. So maybe it's just FUBARed on both ends.??
I know - a lot of detail, but I wanted to point out that I am doing all the good, girl-scout tension stuff.
HELP!!!! I have 9 quilts to sew between now and Christmas!!
