Superior Threads

Delivery and Tension for a Cone of Thread

Q.  I recently purchased and entire cone of Masterpiece thread #154 Sculptures clay. My machine (Pfaff Creative Vision) doesn't like it at all. I was piecing my quilt and the thread broke constantly. I've watched Bob on the Quilt Show many times (the reason I bought the thread!) and I did as he said to do. Factory default on a straight stitch was 4.6- I kept lowering tension to 3.4 and still the thread broke. It's so thin compared to my other 50 weight threads (Mettler). I have no problems with Mettler in the machine. I'd really like to use your thread for piecing. Do you have another suggestion? May I return this cone for something else that you think will work? (My needle was an 80 Schmetz. I'm trying to use them up and was planning to switch to top stitch needles after that). I was cotton purist, but I can be swayed. What about melting issues with poly? I use a cotton setting on the iron for pressing quilt pieces.

A.  Here are two suggestions: 
       1. Are you using a thread stand/cone holder ?  Make sure the thread unwinding straight over the top of the cone (and not from the side). 
       2. Lower the auto tension setting all the way down to 2.0. 3.4 is still too much tension. 
(The 80/12 needle is probably OK, even though it is not a Topstitch .)

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