Sunday's Super Tip - Tension

Today my friend Angela from Blue Tree Studio ran a class on free motion quilting. It was a great session and I came away with new ideas and confidence that 1. I am trainable and 2. can therefore quilt a pointed design like the lightening bolt on Harry Potter's forehead without explaining that I really wanted the wonky shape.

As a free motion class should, we talked about needles, thread, and tension. Rather than trying to remember how the stitching looks when the tension is too loose, too tight, or juuuuust right, Angela had this great visual aid that she shared.  She wrote Top Tension Tight and Top Tension Loose with tight and loose tension in her machine. Visually it provides help that says 'if your stitches look like this, you may need to adjust the tension because...'. And of course Balanced Tension is what you want to see. Here's a photo of the front and the back of what Angela shared: 



Front

Back

If you've ever had tension problems before (and nothing personal, but I hope you have), you know that sometimes the problem is a bigger issue on one side of your project than the other. Having a tool like this handy will help you know if the tension needs adjusted up or down.

Polly had a great tip in the class too; when you get a new specialty thread, stitch with it on a piece of fabric from your project. Stitch an inch or two with different adjustments to your tension and you'll be able to see how your machine should be set for the best stitch. And if your machine is like mine, it resets itself to the default settings every time I turn it off and on. This sample piece will help remind me of the tension setting I need to use.

Hope you like these ideas. Any tip that makes it easier to complete a project is a tip worth sharing!