Q. I recently purchased and entire cone of Masterpiece thread #154 Sculptures clay- invoice # 1466i. 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 swith 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 a 2.0. 3.4 is still too much tension.
The 80/12 needle is probably OK, even though it is not a Topstitch.