Well, I am glad to report that this afternoon I made progress. I might be getting there.
First of all I probably wasn't quite so tired as I was in the week - that might have helped. And I wound the quilt on a bit so that I was quilting on the patchwork rather than on the edging fabric.
So, what do you think?
Ok - I am not going to win a quilt show with this, but it will do.
Getting a bit adventurous (some might say cocky!)
I am not going to tempt fate and say that I have cracked it because I haven't. But at least I have managed some stitching.
Problems encountered today:-
- The bobbin ran out but because I am not looking at the control panel this was a bit of a shock!
- Reloading a bobbin with the machine on the quilt frame
- The upper thread kept breaking (need to do a bit of trouble shooting. This is not usually a problem I have when doing free machine quilting)
- The material bounces a bit - I have not quite got the 'level' of the machine on the frame right
I think that I may be getting there! Hooray!
This looks truly scary, in an impressive way! I was going to try to improve my machine stitching this year but never got round to it - life and other ideas just got in the way.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with it!
Well, not so much scary (am I over egging the pudding with my story telling?) as just a bit daunting.
DeleteBut I am sure we will get there, me and the beast!!
Running out of bobbin is just one of those things, I even do it on the big one!! lol
ReplyDeleteUpper thread breaking - you may have to loosen the top tension a fair bit. Domestic machine needles are not really designed for multi directional sewing so when you go against the designed bend in the needle, sideways or towards the front, you are putting extra tension on the thread. A longarm needle is fairly solid and round in comparison (and a pain to put in with no flat back!)
The bounce you do become used to. When I started with domestic on a Grace frame I had a couple of bags of lentils to weight the fabric down a bit each side of where I was sewing. Also, does that frame have elastic grips to tension the sides?
Don't give up!!!
Oh, thanks for these brilliant tips! I will need to fiddle with the tension a bit I think and infact think that I may have also bent the needle slightly. So I am going to change that again too.
DeleteI did not do any this weekend (other commitments which I will blog about in due course) but intend to attack it again with renewed vigour this week.
So what sort of frame do you have? Do you have a really mega beast? All these gadgets and gizmos - who'd have thought quilting could get so technical!
Thanks for stopping by.
H
I started with a domestic on a Grace frame and now have an HQ 18 Avante.
DeleteIf you loosen the tension be careful of your speed going in and out of points and sharp bends too. You have to keep up a regular gentle speed or you will have eyelashes where you change direction sharply.