Patent ID: 7789028

Claim:
A method of operating a chain-stitch quilting machine having one or more needles driven by a needle drive and one or more loopers driven by a looper drive, with the one or more needles and the one or more loopers arranged in one or more stitching element pairs of one needle and one looper operable to move in a series of cycles to sew, in a multi-layered material, a double-lock chain-stitch sequence with a needle thread from the needle and a looper thread from the looper, the method comprising: operating the needle drive and the looper drive in phase through a plurality of cycles to sew a double-lock chain-stitch sequence in the multi-layered material with each of the one or more stitching element pairs; and controlling the needle drive and the looper drive differently to differently phase, through at least part of at least one cycle, the needle relative to the looper of each of the one or more stitching element pairs upon starting the sewing of the chain-stitch sequence to relatively control the needle and looper threads so that a loop in a needle thread is picked up by a looper before the needle enters a looper thread loop at the beginning of a chain-stitch sequence.