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Posted by Kate XXXXXX on October 19, 2009, 4:25 pm
Edna Pearl wrote:
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>> Take a poly micrifiber lens cloth (NOT an impregnated-with-lens-cleaner
>> type one) and floss between the tension disks. Whenever my machine plays
>> up like this, a quick flossing saves the day.
>
> Pure genius. I have learned so much from this thread! Mind if I use a
> clean, soft toothbrush? I went all over my machine with an oily old
> toothbrush I save for this purpose, but it has never occurred to me to get
> down into the top-thread tensions disks -- with something clean obviously,
> not an oily brush!
Better with a cloth. My opticians gives them away with every new pair
of specs (and the GMNT gets through a couple of pairs a year at the
moment!), and we never use them, so I always have a few spare.
If you don't have any, try a scrap of sanded silk or other fine, dense
weave LINT FREE cloth. I just recommend the lens cloths because they
work and I always have a few to hand. A chunk of polyester crepe de
chine will do.
Lift the presser foot and separate the disks by hand and have a good
look, if you have an external mechanism. Mine is burried, but as the
machine is out of the 5 year warantee (being 10 years old this month), I
just unscrew the skin to get at it. :)
With one particularly manky and grunged mechanism (on my 15-88 treadle),
I resorted to taking the tension right off and dismembering it into its
20 or so component parts, polishing the disks with wire wool and then
Himself finishing them off with a polishing disk on the craft drill, and
giving the spindle a good scrape with a toothpick and a polish with some
poly crepe before finishing off with the lens cloth. It has worked
perfectly eve since.
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
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Posted by Edna Pearl on October 19, 2009, 6:40 pm
Dismantling the thread tension mechanism? Obviously, you are a braver
quilter than I. :-)
ep
show/hide quoted text
> Edna Pearl wrote:
>>> Take a poly micrifiber lens cloth (NOT an impregnated-with-lens-cleaner
>>> type one) and floss between the tension disks. Whenever my machine
>>> plays up like this, a quick flossing saves the day.
>> Pure genius. I have learned so much from this thread! Mind if I use a
>> clean, soft toothbrush? I went all over my machine with an oily old
>> toothbrush I save for this purpose, but it has never occurred to me to
>> get down into the top-thread tensions disks -- with something clean
>> obviously, not an oily brush!
> Better with a cloth. My opticians gives them away with every new pair of
> specs (and the GMNT gets through a couple of pairs a year at the moment!),
> and we never use them, so I always have a few spare.
> If you don't have any, try a scrap of sanded silk or other fine, dense
> weave LINT FREE cloth. I just recommend the lens cloths because they work
> and I always have a few to hand. A chunk of polyester crepe de chine will
> do.
> Lift the presser foot and separate the disks by hand and have a good look,
> if you have an external mechanism. Mine is burried, but as the machine is
> out of the 5 year warantee (being 10 years old this month), I just unscrew
> the skin to get at it. :)
> With one particularly manky and grunged mechanism (on my 15-88 treadle), I
> resorted to taking the tension right off and dismembering it into its 20
> or so component parts, polishing the disks with wire wool and then Himself
> finishing them off with a polishing disk on the craft drill, and giving
> the spindle a good scrape with a toothpick and a polish with some poly
> crepe before finishing off with the lens cloth. It has worked perfectly
> eve since.
> --
> Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
> Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
> http://www.katedicey.co.uk
> Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
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Posted by Tia Mary on October 19, 2009, 7:56 am
Edna Pearl wrote:
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> ...<snip>.... So I decided to go back to a
> triple-figure eight, Amish quilting pattern that had attracted me earlier.
> I'll quilt that tomorrow with my new, see-through darning foot. Based on
> past experience with a mini-quilt, I think I may be better at quilting such
> a pattern than I am at quilting a straight line! Meanders and stippling
> never attracted me very much before, but I find I'm having good luck with it
> on a practice scrap, so that may be in my future, too.
>
> ep
And this is the reason I try to never do straight line quilting with
a straight stitch. I will use one of my fancy stitches if I am home
working on my Janome. If I am at the cabin in Lizard Land, I use the
multi zigzag stitch. My straight line are **never** straight and suing
some sort of decorative stitch makes that less noticeable :-). CiaoMeow
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>&;;&<
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PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties)
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about
their whiskers!
Visit my Photo albums at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary
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Posted by Maureen Wozniak on October 19, 2009, 8:58 am
On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:20:45 -0500, Edna Pearl wrote
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> I quilted a bunch of straight lines with a walking foot for the first time
> today, and found it quite . . . erm . . . challenging. I am pretty sure
> that the solution to most of my problems is practice, practice, practice,
> but I thought I'd make a few notes here and see if anybody has any words of
> wisdom.
>
> 1. Setting the machine's stitch length was a joke. The stitch length was
> determined more by how much the quilt package was dragging for one reason or
> another -- snagging on the bicycle clips as they traveled on, under, around
> the machine, snagging on an accordian-fold in the package in my lap, etc.
> This is related to . . .
I always, always increase my stitch length a lot when I'm quilting straight
lines with my walking foot. I just get better and more even results that
way.
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>
> 2. I hate bicycle clips. They scrape across the finish of my SM cabinet
> (admittedly a beat-up finish already, but still), they snag, they fall off
> on the floor, etc. I'm getting better with this. Would it help to wrap the
> clips with cheesecloth?
>
This might be heresy but I never, ever use clips of any kind. I just smoonch
up the quilt and shove it through.
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>
> 4. Puckers on the back. I think this was due purely to the fact that I did
> a lousy job of spray-basting. The walking foot was feeding fine and doing
> what it was supposed to do; I just had glued some puckers into the back. I
> know what I'll do differently the next time I spray-baste.
Yep.
show/hide quoted text
>
> That said, I got some good practice and the quilt looks pretty decent on
> top, so far. After the thread yesterday when I asked about how far apart my
> straight-line quilting should be, I decided that the narrow lines I wanted
> would make the quilt narrower than I wanted. So I decided to go back to a
> triple-figure eight, Amish quilting pattern that had attracted me earlier.
> I'll quilt that tomorrow with my new, see-through darning foot. Based on
> past experience with a mini-quilt, I think I may be better at quilting such
> a pattern than I am at quilting a straight line! Meanders and stippling
> never attracted me very much before, but I find I'm having good luck with it
> on a practice scrap, so that may be in my future, too.
>
> ep
>
>
Maureen
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Posted by Polly Esther on October 19, 2009, 9:36 am
EP, I'm hoping you give Kate's suggestion about tensions slipping. She
wrote:
Take a poly micrifiber lens cloth (NOT an impregnated-with-lens-cleaner
type one) and floss between the tension disks. Whenever my machine
plays up like this, a quick flossing saves the day.
I really don't know what she's talking about but since she's a
professional, her experience carries great weight and I'd give it serious
consideration. Spray basting was a 'tried it once' and nevermore trial for
me. Lots of folks here have great success with that stuff but for me it was
a guammy mess. (My mama's word, almost the same as gummy but much, Much
worse.) Polly
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>> type one) and floss between the tension disks. Whenever my machine plays
>> up like this, a quick flossing saves the day.
>
> Pure genius. I have learned so much from this thread! Mind if I use a
> clean, soft toothbrush? I went all over my machine with an oily old
> toothbrush I save for this purpose, but it has never occurred to me to get
> down into the top-thread tensions disks -- with something clean obviously,
> not an oily brush!