I've been playing...

As you can imagine, I have been playing whenever I can get a free moment with my new Bernina 830. OMG... this thing does so much, I will never figure it all out. So this week, I decided to play with the BSR and some of my favorite threads to see what it is like to free motion quilt on this baby.

Well, first I had to figure out how the BSR works... took me a few seconds, but it wasn't hard. The book, DVD and screen do a good job of walking you through how to use it. Next came the actual quilting. First I used Superior Masterpiece with Bottomline in the bobbin. Once I adjusted the tension to 3.5, all was fine... it purred like a baby. Quilting was smooth, just as long as I didn't try to go to fast. Then it peeped at me :-). Next, still with Bottomline in the bobbin, I tried one of my favorite threads, Superior Rainbow... ughhh... talk about breakage and spit up. No, 3.5 was not going to make it. After trying tension settings ranging from 1.0 to 4.0 (the default) I gave up and tried another thread. The YLI variegated worked like a charm at a tension setting of 2.25. I was able to do feathers, swirls and echoed swirls, with no issues, still with the Bottomline as the bobbin thread. Next up was Coats and Clarks twisted variegated. It too like the Rainbow was problematic... spit up on the back, jumped stitches, breakage... you name it, it did it. I wonder if because the Superior Rainbow and CC twisted variegated have a sheen, unlike the flat Masterpeice and YLI, if it causes the problem... or maybe because they are a heavier thread. I tried changing needles to a Sharp 90/14 (I don't know what comes in the 830 straight out of the box, so I thought maybe a new needle.)... no help!

I tried re-threading the bobbin, and top thread... no luck. Has anyone had this issue? Is there a secret tension setting guide for the 830? Or a 830 blog, that I should join??

I will try to make it to the shop tomorrow where I purchased my machine, but my schedule is tight and the person who knows it all, isn't there on Sundays. So any insight by anyone reading this is appreciated...