Your thoughts on tearing yardage?

I’d love some input on tearing yardage off the bolt.  I tear all my wide backings, because they’re just about guaranteed to be wound poorly on the bolt.  Recently, I’ve started tearing my regular fabric instead of cutting it as well, but wondered if there might be any negatives to doing so that I’m not thinking of?

I can’t imagine tearing for small strips, since the edges get a bit ruffly when torn, but when I need a half yard or more off the bolt, I think I like tearing it off best.

I think I’ve about got the IQ tweaked, I’m running a final drift test to verify.  One thing that has me a bit concerned is that I had to add a piece of batting for my thread to feed through between it and the thread sensor wheel added by the IQ.  Doing so increased my upper thread tension quite a bit before it feeds through the actual tension control, but without the batting my thread sensor wheel wouldn’t turn.  Using 40wt Isacord, I’ve got the tension dialed down almost as low as it will go, and my bobbin tension cranked up to 2200 on the TOWA gauge, for a balanced stitch.

What happens if I want to use a thicker, sticky cotton thread like King Tut?  There’s no more tension to play out… guess I’m going to have to play with this and see what I can figure out.  Or maybe I’ll just not use King Tut anymore. :)

Hmmm...

I have to say, Jim’s choice of thread colors was spot on for his quilt, the cone I chose would have not looked nearly as nice.

I don’t know how well you can see the quilting yet, the lights over my longarm make it hard to see any detail, as they’re very bright.  I’m liking the thread very well, but I’m not so sure about the panto he chose.  But, he likes it, and since it’s his quilt, I guess that’s all that matters!

I have King Tut thread on top, Isacord in the bobbin, and I’m using Quilters Dream Blend for this one.  This is the second Batki quilt I’ve done, and I’m finding the batiks a joy to work with.  I’ve heard that they are problematic to piece, and even worse yet to quilt, and here I am thinking they are much nicer to both piece and quilt on!

I am so happy with the new saddle stool.  I had a bobbin jam up and had to unpick a section of stitching, and boy was it nice to do it sitting down!