Why is my Thread Breaking When I Quilt? Reason # 2: Teensy Tiny Stitches

One of the most common and frustrating problems when you're quilting is having your thread break. There are so many reasons this can happen, and I run into a lot of them with my students. So, in this series of posts I'll talk about the problems and solutions I encounter.

Teensy Tiny Stitches

When you're learning free-motion quilting, it can be tempting to slow WAYYYY down to try to get control of the fabric, the machine, your hands and your foot all working together. 

But the result of this is often that you slow down so much that your stitches become REALLY TINY. And then the thread breaks. 

Why?

Because the fabric moved so little that the thread stayed under the needle. Then the needle stitched through the thread and . . . bam! . . . the thread broke.

The telltale signs of this are those tiny stitches, and also where the thread breaks -- right at the needle.

The fix for this thread-breaking probblem is simple: you need to move faster. The good news is that you probably have already practiced the right speed for quilting for many, many hours. Remember the fussy baby rock? Well, that side-to-side glide is the perfect rhythm and speed for quilting. Here's one of my Quilting Yoga videos to help you get the hang of it.

Another motion that's familiar to you that will help your quilting is riding a bicycle. If you go too slow on a bicycle, you wobble and fall over.  You need a certain amount of forward speed to ride the bicycle.

Free-motion quilting is the same: if you go too slow, the stitching lines wobble. And you can get those teensy tiny stitches and thread breakage. But if you move in a smooth, gliding motion at the fussy-baby rock speed, you'll get smooth, flowing lines. And your stitches will be even. And you won't break your thread because of teensy tiny stitches.

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