Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I bought my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen just under two years ago. With it came a bobbin winder, which my dealer showed me how to use. The instructions that came with the machine were next to useless…

So here are some instructions for THIS bobbin winder (see picture below). I believe Handi Quilter now supplies a different style bobbin winder with the Sweet Sixteen, so only use these instructions if your bobbin winder is made by cuTex and looks like this:

How to thread the cuTex bobbin winder

See the diagram below for the thread path; you can thread either side of the bobbin winder, just don’t cross thread over from one side to the other.

1. Pull the thread off the spool and up and through the thread mast.
2. Poke the end of the thread into the little hole above the tension knob (circled in yellow in the photo above).
3. Pull the thread you’ve just poked through the hole back towards the spool and ‘floss’ it between the tension disks (the silver part of the tension knob area)
4. Pull the thread towards the silver spindle (far left in photo above — NOTE: there is no bobbin on this spindle). If you have a bobbin with a slot, poke the thread through the slot, then push the bobbin onto the spindle. If you don’t have a slot on the bobbin, wind the thread around the bobbin several times before pushing it on the spindle – it needs to have a decent grip so the rest of the thread can ‘catch’ on it when you switch the bobbin winder on.
5. Press the On switch.
6. Adjust the timer (how much time will depend on how thick the thread is – I tend to have mine set between 9 and 15, but thicker threads will require less as they fill up quicker). You can always restart if the timer stops before the bobbin is full.
7. Press the Start button and make sure the thread ‘catches’ on the bobbin and starts to fill.
8. Use your fingers or the back of your hand to feel the tension of the thread coming from the tension disk to the bobbin – it shouldn’t be too tight, but equally it shouldn’t be totally slack either. There should be some ‘bounce’ in the thread tension. If the tension is too tight or loose, turn the tension knob – retest the ‘bounce’ and adjust the tension as required.
9. Do NOT overfill the bobbin – only fill it to about 80% full, not all the way. If you overfill the bobbin, it will not work correctly in your machine.
10. Turn the bobbin winder off when you’ve finished, cut the thread near the full bobbin, and remove the bobbin — sometimes the bobbin will be quite tight, so you may need to use a bit of brute force to get it off!

As I tend to use similar weight threads for my bobbins, I only need to tweak the tension a little every so often; otherwise, it’s set and forget.

Other hints:

• I use the back metal holder on the bobbin winder for some of my spare bobbins — it holds about six (see the top photo).
•  To stop thread from spooling off the bobbin once it’s wound, I wrap it was a child’s ponytail elastic (see picture below) — I can get a pack of 20 or so from the supermarket for just a few dollars.
• I keep my already-wound bobbins in a zip-lock bag suspended by a ribbon from the unused thread mast on my Sweet Sixteen — I find it’s easier to keep them there as they are only an arm’s length away (see picture below). Unfortunately, the metal spool holders on the Sweet Sixteen are just a tad too thick for the bobbins — I wonder if they’ll change that in a future design? So many thread spools have different thicknesses in their central cores, I’m surprised HQ didn’t just go for a versatile spool holder thickness that would suit thread spools AND M-size bobbins.

And yes, my Bling Bear (a present from my friend Glenys) watches over me while I quilt 😉

This great YouTube video from Jamie Wallen is a clear explanation on getting the tension right for long-arm quilting machines. It also applies equally to mid-arm machines, like the HQ Sweet Sixteen.

Update June 2019: This Handi Quilter Blog article clearly explains the type of needles you need to buy for your longarm or Sweet Sixteen machine: https://handiquilter.com/all-about-needles/

On the Handi Quilter sit-down model Yahoo! group someone asked about whether they could use their domestic sewing machine needles in their HQ Sweet Sixteen (or Babylock Tiara) machine.

In a word, NO!

The needles are made differently, with the prime difference being the shape of the shank. On a domestic sewing machine needle, the shank is flat at the back. On an industrial machine needle, the shank is fully rounded.

Image of a domestic sewing machine needles’ parts. Industrial machine needles have the same parts except for the shape of the shank. (From http://www.sewingmantra.com/index.php/needles/parts-of-sewing-needles/)

The needles used in the Sweet Sixteen are industrial needles and do not have this flat piece on the shank. In the diagram below, A represents an industrial sewing machine needle looking down from the top, whereas B is a domestic sewing machine needle from the same angle — note the flat part on the shank.

The fronts of industrial (A) and domestic (B) sewing machine needles look just the same.

However, the backs are different. The industrial machine’s needle (A) is fully rounded at the back; whereas the domestic sewing machine’s needle (B) has a flat back on the shank.

Domestic sewing machine needles have the flat side on the shank to make it easy for you to insert the needle correctly into the needle holder on the machine. However, with the industrial needles, you have no guide as to where to place the needle. Thus you need to be careful when inserting the needle in your Sweet Sixteen to make sure the long groove is facing you, and the scarf (the notch on the back) is away from you.

One way to do this successfully is to take the old needle and place its point into the eye of the new needle (with the long groove facing towards you), then insert the needle so that the old needle is at the 6 o’clock position, perpendicular to the new needle. Some people position the needle just off centre, at the 5:30 position (this is what I do) and that’s fine. But don’t position it too far away from the 6 o’clock position otherwise the bobbin thread won’t be picked up correctly and you will not be able to form a stitch correctly.

For more information about sewing machine needles and how they work, check out the excellent videos on needles (videos 16 and 17) from Superior Threads: https://www.superiorthreads.com/videos/thread-therapy-with-dr-bob-educational-videos/. Note: These videos focus on domestic machine needles (particularly topstitch needles), but much also applies to industrial machine needles, especially the information on needle sizes. As an aside, I mostly use 40 wt threads for my quilting and a size 100/16 134 R Groz-Beckert needle in my Sweet Sixteen (the 134 is important).

For more information on needles suitable for Handi Quilter machines, see this free video: http://www.qnntv.com/videos/tnt-threads-needles-tension-with-handi-quilter/ or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZBNUKsCyxg (needles and their relationship to thread is discussed in the first 10 minutes).

Update: R versus MR needles: A further question from the group was about whether we can use MR needles instead of R needles in the Sweet Sixteen. Handi Quilter is quite clear on that — NO! See https://www.handiquilter.com/forums/discussion/1375/needle-confusion (To quote from that 2015 forum post response by the Handi Quilter Educator: “Handi Quilter recommends the R needles for the Sweet Sixteen, the Avante and Fusion machines and the MR needles for the Infinity machine.”)

There’s a picture of an MR needle here: http://www.schmetzneedles.com/category/Long-Arm-Needles-27 — you can see the difference in the shape of the needle, so I can see why HQ says NOT to use them in the S16.

Groz-Beckert describes the tips of the needles (which give the letter designation such as ‘R’) in the ‘Cloth points’ article here: https://dev.groz-beckert.com/mm/media/en/web/pdf/Cloth_points_from_Groz-Beckert.pdf . And Superior Threads has more information on the codes on Groz-Beckert needles here: https://www.superiorthreads.com/education/groz-beckert-needle-package-numbers.

These are the main needles I buy (in sizes 12 to 20, though mostly 14 and 16):

Two final hints:

• Hint 1: Use the groove on the front of the needle to help thread your needle easily every time. Instead of trying to get the end of the thread into the eye of the needle, run it down the groove and it will pop into the eye without a problem almost every time (assuming the end of the thread is snipped, of course, and not frayed).
• Hint 2: Discard your old sewing machine needles, pins etc. into a safe, sealed container. I use an old glass spice jar as I couldn’t justify the expense of an official ‘sharps’ container from the drugstore. It will take a long time to fill this jar, and once full, I’ll throw out the sealed jar take this jar to my local pharmacy for correct disposal and grab another one for my dead needles.