We started quilting for a customer and nothing was going right, the stitches were ugly on the back. It seemed like the tension was too tight, and we had thread break after thread break.
At one point, there were 5 people clustered around Tim Gunn trying to make him work. Finally we had to crank down the tension wheel and unwind a part of the thread from our tension wheel.
The problem, we determined was that the customer had used cheaper fabric and then provided REALLY thin batting. There was literally nothing for the thread to hold onto in the sandwich as the needle passed through during the quilting process.
The entire fiasco was compounded by the fact that the backing fabric was made with a silkscreen process and the white back of the fabric was showing with each needle pass.
So it goes back to the phrase, quality ingredients. What makes a great quilt ... quality fabric. I'm discovering that for the best results, use cotton fabric and make sure that your batting has a great loft.
Who knew?
