Machine Misfortunes

Monday
I am tired of gummy needles, missed stitches, and broken thread.  I am tired of failure.  Do you ever feel that way?  I love my doggie portrait.  The fusing came out better than I dreamed, but the quilting is a disaster due to fusible adhesive glopping up the needle.  I called my Baby Lock dealer who is always helpful.  She suggested that maybe I didn't get the fusible ironed enough so that it was fully incorporated into the fabric.  She also suggested #12 denim or jeans needle.  If I couldn't get that needle, try #12 universal.  OK.  I drove to the valley and the closest store didn't have the right needle, although I picked up the #12 universal.  I went to the other store and they were closed for two days.  So....I came home, ironed down the fusible really well with a silicone press cloth and tried again.  No luck.  I talked to my daughter (professional longarmer) and she asked if I had used steam.  No I hadn't so I tried that, to no avail.  My only option is to look further for the #12 denim or jeans needle when I am down off the mountain on Wednesday.

Thank you for listening. I feel better now.  Here is a picture of my doggie before quilting.

Dixie fused, before attempting to quilt.

Tuesday
No luck in quilting no matter what I did so I moved on to another project, but my beloved sewing machine bunched up the stitches, ruffled the fabric and tore the foundation paper.  It was fully serviced one month ago!  I called my dealer and was told to bring the machine in.  Move over dark cloud.  I have had enough disruption.

Wednesday
I left the machine in the shop while I got a haircut, had a Japanese lunch with DH, and did some errands.  What a boost for sagging spirits!  On the way home I retrieved my presently persnickety
machine.

The diagnosis of my machine troubles:
1.  The fusible not only gummed up the needle, but left a crystalline, powdery residue in the bobbin case and surroundings.  The folks in the shop cleaned up the mess and recommended not using Steam-a-Seam 2 Lite with my machine.  That's easy.  I prefer Soft Fuse anyway.  I will just have to do the doggie over again. Fortunately my 3-year service contract paid for the work.

TIP:  Run a tester on your machine with Steam-a-Seam 2 Lite before investing time or money in it for a fusible project.

2.  In my new project (no fusible) I was using Superior's Bottom Line in both the top and bobbin, sewing seams on foundation paper.  It is a thin, polyester thread, and is relatively elastic.  This is fine for the bobbin as it will pull the top thread down slightly when it relaxes, but it is too stretchy for the top and causes bunching.  Being polyester, it also can get hot, which causes more stretching and therefore more bunching.

TIP:  Use Superior's "Bottom Line" thread in the bobbin, but not top AND bottom.

In spite of many, many years of sewing and quilting, I still find myself crawling up the learning curve.  There is always something new to learn in this business/hobby.  My brain loves to form new connections, which will hopefully keep me sane and avoid early onset dementia.

Friday:  Epilogue by Brain Dead
I set up the machine and sat down to sew again, but my fabric bunched up as before.  Rethread, change the needle, redo.  Still bunches.  No (scream and tear hair out).......this cannot be!  Change from my favorite foot to the standard foot.  Ah, it works great.  Pick up my favorite, but non-standard foot to put it away.  What is this sticky stuff on the bottom?  Oh no!  I told you about putting my foundation pattern together with surgical tape.  Well, my surgical tape had been in the band-aid drawer for decades and was feeling a bit gummy on the non-sticking side.  Apparently the top of the tape gummed up the underside of the foot so fabric could not flow under it.  My newly purchased roll of tape is not sticky on top and I can sew over it just fine with all feet.  I cleaned my favorite foot with alcohol and it is back on the machine and working beautifully.  Incidentally, I can easily pull the bad, old tape off the foundation pattern and replace it with the new.  All is working fine and progress has begun again.  May I hear a big HURRAY!!!!?

TIP:  If it is sticky, don't sew it!  Buy a new roll of surgical tape if you plan to use it.

I still have to do the doggie over from scratch, but at least I have the pattern in waiting mode.

Sew a Happy Seam this week.  I wish you no gummed needles or puckered fabric.

Perfection

Many thanks for the good wishes last week.  They helped me get back up on my feet and I am now 100% again.

In a previous post I talked about striving for perfection, but that in some quilting designs total perfection is not really required.  I can now prove the truth of that statement.

I was so excited to have a post pop up on Facebook about using rulers on a domestic machine for quilting.  It suggested using the zipper foot with the machine in free motion mode.  Wow!  What a great idea.  I will explain and show photos, but first let me give the dire warning.

WARNING:  You should use the heavier, 1/4 inch thick rulers and a thick free motion quilting (FMQ) foot.  The special foot will prevent the needle from ducking under the ruler causing damage to the needle, ruler, and worst of all the machine.

Danger:  thin ruler with quilting foot. 

Zipper foot (thick base) --  Quilting foot (thin base)

I decided to try it with a thin ruler as I didn't want to purchase an expensive, thick ruler without having any idea if it would work for me.  I was VERY careful to line up the ruler securely against the side of the zipper foot before sewing each line.  The needle was a decent distance away from the ruler.  Since the machine was in free motion mode (feed dogs down) I could move front to back and sideways with no problem.  You adjust the needle right or left until you get it where you want.

FMQ with zipper foot

TIP:  Please note the warning above.  I don't want you to ruin your machine because of this post.

I used a 6" square ruler and a 3" square ruler and found that the 6" worked better.  I didn't have any trouble moving ruler and fabric with my left hand and a glove on my right hand.  However, I decided that some grabbers might help on the back of the ruler.

Adhesive backed grabbers

Four grabbers (larger white circles) on the back of the ruler

They are great!  It was much easier to move the fabric in any direction.  It took some practice to get my stitch length regular.  Below are my best practice results.

Not perfect, but definitely acceptable!

Now it was time to try it on my quilt to fill in triangles that are 1-1/4 inch tall.  First I ripped out all the stitching that I had previously done with FMQ.  The purple lines are only guides.  The stitched lines will be closer together.

Triangles waiting for fill lines.

I did three triangles with my new method, ripped out two.  Replaced them.  Ripped out one.  At that point I ripped out all three and put my FMQ foot back on, hung up the ruler and did the lines without the ruler.  They are not perfect, but they still look nice without any ripping, and it went so much more quickly.

FMQ fill.  Ruler idea discarded!

TIP:  Try new methods.  Some work.  Some don't.  I think the problem here was that the lines are so short.  I finally used a micron pen to put a tiny dot on my quilting foot which I can use as a guide to maintain spacing and direction as needed by lining it up with previously sewn lines.

I will eventually get a thick ruler because I know now that I can do this.  My daughter tells me there are places on the Web where I can get a proper foot that will adapt to my machine.  More research needed.

TIP:  Perfection is still a worthy goal, but sometimes reality looks just as nice, is easier, and saves time.

Sew a happy seam this week.

Satin Stitch Epiphany

I have mentioned a time or two that I do blanket stitch appliqué because my machine does not do a nice satin stitch, no matter what I do.  An epiphany occurred today while watching a U-tube tutorial and I feel really stupid.  My machine has a preset satin stitch and I never knew it!  I might have found it if I had read the manual.  You may already know about such a preset, but I was thrilled and there may be a person or two that this will help.

TIP:  Read your machine's manual.  There is a wealth of informative material there.

Before I explain the stitches it is important to know which presser foot to use.  In figure 1 you see the top of three possible options.  A and B are general feet.  C is an appliqué foot, which does not have a bar in front.  It is free of visual obstruction so you can see what is ahead of the needle and thus you can be more accurate when sewing a complicated piece.

Figure 1

Figure 2 shows the bottom of the three feet.  A is flat on the bottom.  B and C have a recessed portion in the middle, which allows thick stitching to slide under the foot easily.  These recessed feet are what you should use.  I like option C because it allows me to see and guide the work more accurately.

Figure 2

Zig Zag
We all know about the zig-zag stitch.  It has been around for years.  Shortening the stitch length will create a satin stitch (sort of), but it does not make a nice edge for appliqué.  The reason is that each stitch is taken at an angle from the previous stitch.  When I tried to shorten the stitch length to make the stitches closer together than in the photo, it gummed up under my presser foot, and I created a rat's nest on the back.

Zig-zag stitch

Satin Stitch
The satin stitch is designed and preset into some machines to create a closer, more regular stitch.  The sequence of needle placement creates a stitch that is straight across first, then at an angle for the second stitch.  I was able to shorten the stitch length by one increment, but no further.  Still, it is shorter than the zig zag and looks tons better.  The actual stitching is a scant 1/8 inch wide and looks really spiffy, although the enlarged view in the photo shows the minor imperfections, which are not noticeable in the actual stitching.

TIP:  Test before using this stitch on your fine appliqué.  Every machine is different.

When using the preset it is still possible to make adjustments to stitch length and width according to your needs and preferences.  The preset is only a starting point for the correct stitch.  My Viking machine has three presets:  narrow, medium and wide.

Have fun with this useful stitch from your lexicon of decorative options.