Machine Woes

Ever have times when it seems machinery hates you? I've been that way this week.

I started quilting my recent mystery quilt, and all was going OK until on Monday afternoon the bobbin ran out. I wound a new bobbin, but the winder didn't stop automatically the way it should, and there was too much thread on the bobbin before I stopped it.  I removed what I thought was enough thread, but actually wasn't. When I pushed the bobbin into its case (little hint there - if it doesn't just drop in, that's a sign of a problem!) it wouldn't rotate properly. And then I couldn't get it out of the case.

Eventually I managed to lever it out with the help of a screw-driver. But that put little nicks in the bobbin. So in my attempt to not waste too much thread, I destroyed a bobbin. Cost so far: $5 (plus a bit of thread).

On Tuesday I had other stuff to do, so couldn't get back to the problem until today. First I wound the thread off the wrecked bobbin onto a new one. Most of it, anyway. This time the bobbin winder stopped correctly. Then I did some quilting on a practice piece, but couldn't get the tension adjusted correctly. It would sew OK for a short distance, then jam up with the bobbin thread too tight to feed. And when I removed the bobbin case from the machine, there was an extra loop of thread out of the edge of the case that shouldn't have been there. This happened a couple of times. Perhaps the bobbin case was also damaged? (Cost of new bobbin case, $119.)  I rang the dealer in Geelong and spoke to their service department, who suggested I take the whole machine in for them to look at. So after lunch, I packed the machine up, popped it in the car, and drove the 75km to Geelong.


Of course the machine worked fine for him. No jams, no tension problems. I don't need a new bobbin case. But he did make one adjustment:

He moved the pre-tensioning bit so that instead of pointing straight down, it is at this angle. He said not to use the little hook between the pre-tensioner and the tension disks. According to him, this way the thread will flow through the machine better.

He also said my bobbin tension was too low, which may have happened when I was messing around trying to get the jammed bobbin out, or may have always been too low. He cast doubt on the needle I was using, even though it was a new one I put in before starting this quilt on Sunday. He showed me a different place to oil the machine from what the manual says. It started to feel like everything I'd been doing with the machine was completely wrong.

Anyway, the machine is back home. I have booked it in for a service in about a month (the first time they had available). I hope it behaves itself until then.

New Foot

Until today, sewing with rulers on my Sweet Sixteen looked like this:

It might not be obvious, but the low side of the foot (on the right here) is almost level with the bottom of the ruler. That means it doesn't take much for the ruler to accidentally slip over the top of the foot. If that happens, you either mess up the stitching line, or maybe break the needle as it hits the ruler. I've only messed up the stitching line, but I have read of a couple of people who had to take the machine in for a service after hitting a ruler and apparently messing up the timing. I've tried to always hold the ruler against the back of the foot (the high side), but that's not always possible. For example, you can't sew round a circle only using the back of the foot - you have to use every part of the foot to complete the 360 degrees. You just have to be very careful.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that Handi Quilter had released a new foot designed to work better with rulers. I ordered it from the dealer in Geelong, and collected it on Friday. Today I got to use it:

This is the Sure Foot. It doesn't have a low side; it is high all the way round, so the ruler can't slip over it. There are a couple of little notches, at the front (hidden in this picture) and on the right-hand side, presumably to help you line up stitching lines. But I don't think I really needed them - I can see into the centre of the foot well enough. 

I started quilting the table-runner that I pieced in May. The new foot is much less stressful to sew with! I could relax and not worry constantly about the foot slipping under the ruler. So although I think it is way too expensive for what it is, if you want to do ruler work it is worth considering. I love it, and might just leave this foot on all the time, now.

Storage Find

Under the Sweet Sixteen's table are a couple of open compartments which could be handy for storing accessories. But because they are open, they are of limited usefulness. I've looked in various shops for a basket or box that would fit in these spaces, which are only just over 5cms high. But the shallowest basket I'd seen was 6cms high.

A couple of days ago I found what I wanted:

2.5l plastic containers, $2.50 each at The Reject Shop. And they even have lids, which was more than I expected. Amazingly enough made in Australia rather than China! Look how well it fits the space.

One now holds spare needles, bobbins, the cleaning brush, etc, and another holds my ruler collection:

Which grew a little this week when I received an order from Westalee. But everything fits, and there's probably enough room for a couple more small ones:

Speaking of rulers, here's some learning exercises I completed for the "Quilting with Rulers" Craftsy class:

Plenty of wonkiness, but also lots of potential for use in future quilts once I perfect my technique. I think it is important to show imperfections and wonkiness on blogs, not just the beautiful stuff!

Sweet16 in the House

Today the Sweet Sixteen made its way from the Ballarat unit to the new house:

It took a bit of major re-arranging to make space for it. But when I had wedged it in and surrounded it with other stuff, I discovered I should have raised its legs first:

Too low to use with this chair, and for the table beside it to offer support for larger quilts. Will have to move everything around again to raise the legs about 5cms.

Horizontal Spool Pin

Yesterday I purchased a horizontal spoon pin for my Sweet Sixteen, and today I got to attach it and play with it:

I own a lot of spools of Signature quilting thread that I couldn't use on this machine, because there are notches on both ends of the spool that the thread would catch on. I'm putting this picture here, because the spool pin comes with no instructions, and I couldn't find a clear photo on the internet showing how to thread the machine using this pin. There is only a video on the HQ website. So for anyone else who can't watch videos online, here's what you do! Put the washer between the machine and the nut to attach the pin to the machine. Then the thread comes from this pin and straight to the 3-hole tensioner. You don't have to take it back through any of the thread guides at the back of the machine. I found I had to lower the tension on the top thread to get a balanced stitch using thread on this pin.

Some of my stitching:

Bit hard to see that one, sorry.

Earlier in the week I came across a news picture of interesting ploughing a farmer in South Australia did to protect his topsoil after all the vegetation on the farm was destroyed by a bushfire. You can see the picture here:
Patchwork Ploughing

I thought it could make an interesting quilting design, so here is a little bit I did to try it out:

With a bit of practice to smooth out the unevenness, I think it could make a nice filler design.

Quilted Heart

Yesterday I pulled out all the distorted stitching I did on Wednesday. It took quite a while, but it was a relief to be rid of it. Today I did all the ditch-stitching with the Sweet 16, which worked much better. Then I started the exercises the quilt is for:

This isn't the first exercise in the class (Continuous Line Quilting by Ann Petersen at Craftsy), but it was the one I was up to watching. I'll have to go back and re-watch the beginning of the class now as I've completely forgotten what was in the early lessons. And run in those threads!

Distortion

Yesterday I pin-basted the class quilt I put together on Friday. This morning before the sun got up, I started ditch-stitching it, ready for the free-motion exercises. But I hadn't done much of the stitching before I realised there was a problem:

 Hard to see the problem there. What about with a ruler (and no flash):

Another section:

The stitching has dragged the fabric along, distorting the whole piece. And it is not just the front that is affected. Here is the back view:

So, I am going to have to pull out this stitching, and try again. Of course it was only after I stopped that I remembered what happened last time I used the walking foot.

And even back in 2010 it was giving me problems: Non-walking Foot.

So I think the main cause of the distortion was the faulty walking foot, but does that explain the distortion of the back? Once I have pulled out this morning's stitching, I will try doing the ditch-stitching on the Sweet 16 instead.

Quilting Time!

This morning some technicians came to visit and informed us that we can't get TV signals from either Western Victoria or Melbourne here. If we want TV we will have to have a satellite dish. Add that to the NBN guys who came last week and informed us that there is no signal here from the NBN tower at the end of the road, so if we want internet we might have to wait until the new NBN satellite is commissioned in 18 months.

Fortunately I've got plenty of things to occupy my time beside TV and broadband internet. There's unpacking to do, for a start. But Ballaarat Quilters' quilt show is on soon (at the end of the month) and I've entered three quilts in the show. That includes the one that members of the guild basted for me recently, which I haven't quilted yet. So this afternoon I spent some time with my Sweet Sixteen making a start on the quilting:

It's not a large quilt. Hopefully I'll have it quilted and bound well before the show.

AQC Day 1

Our lovely tutor, Debby Brown (in the pink top), and our room full of Sweet 16s.

A small piece of Debby's own work, to either inspire or intimidate us! It looked fantastic, but she pointed out that there were irregularities. You just don't notice them when you look at the whole piece. Let's hope the same thing applies on our own work! The thread Debby used for this is one she designed for Wonderfil, which will be released later this year. I can't remember its name, now. Something-lux, I think.

After a full day, I was so tired I couldn't remember what letter my name starts with (which was important for a giveaway Debby had for one of her patterns). Here's what I achieved before my brain stopped working:

Still a bit of space to be filled, but I was pretty happy with what I got done. I can finish it off on my own machine later. The white lines of chalk dots are guidelines which will come off, and then the stitching lines should be a little more distinct.  

Quilting Day

Guess what? Still no earthworks guy today!

At least I got to spend some time playing with my Sweet 16:

The owl is a cot panel I specifically bought for quilting practice (only $4 at GJ's). After I'd stitched around the printed design, I added a few more leaves to fill in some of the background.

The View From Here

This is what I see looking north as I wake up:

This is looking east:

And to the south:

One of two windows looking south in the bedroom. I love seeing the trees in every direction.

Today I finished this little wall-hanging:

It has a few meanings for to me. When you don't know where to start, just pick one thing and then take it from there. If everything seems too overwhelming, just do one thing and don't worry about the whole big issue. If there's too much to do, don't try to do everything at once, just do one thing at a time. Perhaps slightly ironically I've quilted it with about 18 different designs. The letters are paper-pieced, using a pattern called "Just My Type" by Kristy at Quiet Play. The "flower" pieces are machine pieced, and the leaves and stem are appliqued. I started quilting it on my Elna Lotus last year, but gave up because some of the paper-pieced seams where thicker than it could cope with. But my lovely new Sweet 16 quilted through those thick bits without even blinking!

Quilting at Last

Time to move on from practicing on scraps pieces of fabric, and actually quilt a real project with the Sweet 16:

I did a bunch of different filler designs between the letters on this small piece. I just did a search through my old posts, and I don't think I've shown the whole top of this one. Here's part of it under construction a year ago (!): Letters.  And a little of the applique in March.  As I gain confidence with the new machine, projects much older than this will see the light of day.

Some Boxes for Me

A few weeks back, I put a special something on lay-by at Moonee Ponds Sewing Centre. Today I went to make the second-last payment, and ask them to place the order. As she was processing my payment, Evelyn said, "I've got some news for you about your machine." Slight pause as I wonder if there's a problem? "That's it behind you!"

I turned around and there it was!

My Sweet Sixteen! Actually that's not all of it - its table is in another box in a different part of the shop, and the TruStitch is on back-order. Evelyn placed the machine order last week, as she was worried that the special deal HQ have at the moment might mean stocks could be running low. So here it is, a week earlier than I was expecting to see it.

Today I only gave the box a pat and took its photo. But in a week or so I'll be driving over to collect it, and in just under three weeks I should actually have somewhere to set it up. Stay tuned for that excitement!