I never should have stopped yesterday - I should have finished the quilt no matter how hot it was upstairs. Everything was going beautifully except for the temperature in the room. I went upstairs about 8:00 this morning to finish the quilt and everything went wrong. Stitches skipping. Thread shredding. I'd not touched the 
machine or changed a thing since yesterday! Longarms can be very finicky machines at times - often when it seems like nothing has changed. Struggled across about 1/3 of the quilt with the thread having shredded and broken about 5 times. Tried 3 to 4 things that changed nothing. I finally changed the needle, even though the one I was using was a titanium needle, which is supposed to last 10 times longer than regular needles, and had been used on only one small quilt. Voila! Everything back to normal. This is the first titanium needle I've ever used - so far I'm not sold! This is the second quilt this beginning quilter has made, which is a gift for a friend. I quilted her first quilt a couple weeks ago - a quilt for her baby due any day now - but forgot to take a picture of it. She's doing pretty well for a beginner!Now I'll ride my 20 minutes on the bicycle while watching a Simply Quilts episode, then will load Broken Dishes onto the machine. Hopefully I can do it while watching the Mariners BEAT Oakland (are you listening, guys?). They beat them the first game this year, but since then have lost 11 straight to them. If they'd beat them only half of those games they'd be in first place in the west instead of last place. Argh . . . ya gotta love 'em even when you are totally disgusted with 'em!
9 comments:
what was it that Norma did with hers the other day---panty hose and something else that straighted out the finicky machine?
I tell you it has ben hard to love our Cardinals lately dropping 8 in a row---still love baseball though. Just like you love your Mariners. More painful doing it is all.
I love the Red Sox and they had a tough weekend at Tampa Bay! As for junk food - I'm a sucker for Cheetos. They are about the only crunchy junk food I really like to eat. I'd rather have chocolate!
I don't have a longarm, but wonder if changes in temp and humidity affect the thread??
What a life?!?!? I love the quilt pattern on the one you just completed. Sounds like you had a great weekend....I always think (wish) for a longarm, but wonder when things don't run smoothly could I handle it? You always seem to come up with a solution.
Melanie
I'm not sold on the titanium needles either. I stick to my Schmetz and no problems. Do you think you had a burr on it?
Do you run an A/C in your studio at all? That can dry out thread just as much as the heat in the winter.
I like the panto you did on this. Good luck with the Broken Dishes.
About the 100 calorie snacks-I love the Chips Ahoy crisps. They hit the spot for me. But my all time favorite snack is peanut M&Ms. I don't care about the calories. When I don't want to go back on the bus in the afternoons, only peanut M&Ms can get me through it.
Stitches that skip and thread that breaks can be so frustrating. I don't have a long arm, but I have gone through the "what happened, nothing's changed" dance. If it doesn't make us hurl a quilt, or the machine *s*, across the room it just makes us smarter next time.
I take my husband (My friend works for the Orioles and gets me free tickets) to 1 game a year (when the Yankees play the Orioles) unfortunately the Yankees won.... We should have gone on Saturday. :o)
Maybe somehow the needle developed a bur or something and that's why it was shredding the thread??
Glad you got it figured out and done so you can move to doing yours!!
Glad you finally got it figured out, but what a rotten start to your day!
Post a Comment