I had planned on quilting today. There’s three quilts waiting to be finished. Instead, I spent the morning trying to find threads that worked on my Gammill Charm. Unfortunately, the threads that worked were the wrong color for the quilts I’m working on. So, instead, I played with tension and threads trying to find what works with this machine.
Just to give you an idea of some of the limits I went to, the top tension was lowered and raised, the thread path was modified, the bobbin tension was checked and modified, the needle size was changed from a size 12 all the way through a size 18, and the last thread track before the needle was sanded in case there were burrs. I ended up using a #90/14 needle for most samples and had Aurifil #40 in the bobbin (only because that’s what I started with).
At the end of this morning’s session, the result was
- Aurifil #40 – broke at the needle despite multiple tension and thread settings.
- So Fine #50 – Worked well
- Fantastico – Worked well – thread is more visable (see the tip of feather in lower right of photo)
- Rainbow – Thread shred and broke despite tension changes.
- King Tut – Thread snapped at needle much like Aurifil.
I’ve tried Masterpiece and Magnifico in the past. Masterpiece broke, but Magnifico worked well and the thread showed beautifully on the quilt top. It is not a thread to use if you want the thread to disappear into the quilt top. All of these but the Aurifil were ordered through Superior Threads.
I ordered Glide and a few other types of thread from BobbinCentral.com (Fil-Tec) that I’m waiting to try as well. That’s for another day.
If anyone has a suggestion for using Aurifil on the Gammill Charm or other longarm, please let me know.
threadtime 