What type of needles to use

I recieved this chart from a friend of mine Blewbird, She passed this on to me and I thought I would share it. Many people have stated they have had trouble with skipped stitches when using their domestic machines for quilting. I use to sell machines and so many times the wrong needle is being used and here is an explaination as to what needles types are used for. Thank you Carol for sending this to me. Many sewing machine stores want to sell you a universal needle. And as it states it is for universal uses, but not always the right choice for your needs.

I was always taught to use a ballpoint needle for knits and to use a sharp needle for woven fabrics. The Universal needle is suppose to cover both, but many are finding skipped stitches from using this for machine quilting. With the many layers of fabics and battings the universal needle isn't the right choice. A sharp needle mainly a denim or topstitching needle will go through the many layers and for a complete stitch. The needle is under a lot of pressure to pierce the layers and the universal needle is blunt enough not to go through all the layers especially at an intersection where seams are pressed in one direction. Hope this sheds some light on the problem and can say a lot of frustrations. Chris ps. Click on it twice and then save to you documents to see larger if you need to.