Quote Originally Posted by Jean Sewing Machine View Post
I know that when I slow down, my stitches get farther apart, so it is better to use a higher speed to avoid that. I have had tension problems, but not needle ot thread breakage issues. Something is flexing to break the needle, but I have no idea what could be the causing that. We have a lot of technically minded and really experienced FMQuilters on this forum. All I can say to you is I hope you find out how to solve your problem, hopefully one of them can help.

Hang in there! I know how frustrating it is when you want to complete a project and the mechanical part of the equation isn't working as it should be.

This is just a wild guess. My foot has an adjustment screw that lets it go closer or farther away from the fabric. Could the fabric be held too loosly and is flopping around? I don't know if all FMQ/darning feet have that kind of adjustment. Just a suggestion.
Jean- why would you have tension problems when FMQ? When I took my FMQ class, I was told that there isn't ANY tension once the feed dogs are dropped. Just curious. . . .

And I agree, you are moving your fabric to fast. I slow my machine down and move my fabric slowly until I am in my groove and then I can speed up the machine. If you are getting too big of stitches when your machine is going slow, you are moving your fabric too fast.