Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Sewing Room Flittering

Last Friday I spent four hours with a Pfaff dealer in Ocala. I trust the tech's 30 years of sewing machine experience, and believe she tried everything possible to fix the problem of my machine skipping stitches, but the problem still exists. When quilting from side to side the machine skips stitches... but not all the time.
Quilt sandwich is, from bottom to top:
Widescreen quilt backing; Quilter's Dream Poly Request loft; Quilter's Dream Wool; and Kaufman Kona
The tech even contacted Pfaff HQ and wasn't able to receive help. All the techs are newer than the Grand Quilter!

Even after a good servicing - set to factory standards - and different thread than Aurifil 50-weight, the problem continued. The tech believes my problem lies with quilting double-batting. Oddly enough, I didn't have problems when I double-batt quilted Ad Libbing.

An IG friend recommends that I try a Superior Titanium Top Stitch needle to see if that makes a difference. When I can get my hands on a package, I'll give them a try.

This is the quilt I've been attempting to quilt. It's my own quilt design - called "Make it Easier - used to teach how to sew a variety of quilt blocks.

Since bringing my Pfaff home, I was able to complete quilting one section. How did I do it?
 

I steam-pressed the quilt sandwich! It helps! Only a few stitches skipped. Still, unless the Superior needle works better, I will think long and hard before using double batting again.


I've completed 12 blocks of my "Spinning Wheel" English paper-piecing project. Time to print and cut more papers, and choose and cut more fabrics for more blocks. It's one of those, "Let's-see-where it-goes" projects.

I also cut out clothes. That's a new pair of yellow shorts for me, and another Dress a Girl Around the World dress. Those pockets are gonna be too cute! Mermaids.

With mod quilter-friends at our Central Florida MQG Saturday Sew-In, I worked on this "Rainbow Rounds" foundation paper piecing project. This quilt appeared in Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, issue 24. What did we do before we had Wonder Clips to hold pieces together?!

Thought you'd like to see some of our modern quilters with our modern makes. Good picture, isn't it? Yep, that's me - lower right. Check out more about our chapter on our Central Florida MQG blog. I write that blog too. 

As I was FPPing, I also sewed 1-1/2" X 1-1/2" leaders and enders to make 4-1/2" X 4-1/2" 16-patch blocks... trying to use up that ever-full basket of tiny cut squares.

And here you have my flittering sewing life. Will I ever get enough of it? Linda

7 comments:

  1. You are certainly a busy lady! I'm having sewing machine troubles, too. Luckily, I leave a week from today, so I was only finishing up a few little things. I do have a back up machine (grrrr), so I'm not entirely without. Thanks for the link to your guild's blog. I'd love to go visit! XO

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  2. Love seeing the photo of all the happy quilters! Your Rainbow Rounds look great! Wish that magazine was more easily available here.... And it's far too expensive to subscribe! Look forward to seeing more of those rainbows!

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  3. Oh how frustrating when not even an expert can solve your machine problem. And I guess it must be even more frustrating as your machine worked perfectly fine before it went wrong. I have my doubts if the double batting is really to blame. How come you've managed before without any problems? I've had my fair share of machine trouble too (as you know) but my machine acted up from the beginning and the only thing which makes "her" behave somewhat is when I use Isacord 40 thread for FMQ. Glad to hear you had a lovely sew-in with your mod quilter friends. It's fun to see what everybody is working on.

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  4. I can only imagine how very very frustrated you must be with your machine since FMQ is your thing. I hope you can find a solution that will work so you can continue to do your great quilting.

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  5. I just love your EPP project. But I must stay focused and not start another project. :)

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  6. Oh so many fun things here to look at Linda. Sorry you haven't found a solution for your machine problems. I am in KC this week and had a chance to get to Angela Walter's new shop in Liberty. A lovely place with perfectly curated selection...would we expect anything less!

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  7. Hope you figure out the skipped stitches problem. The Superior needle just might be the trick. Those little clips sure are handy for lots of things. I used them last year to hold some netting around my patio tomatoes to keep the birds out. Worked great. :)

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