Frustration!

This afternoon, a new spool of thread in hand, I sat down to finish the FMQ on my charm square baby quilt. But, luck clearly wasn't on my side, and I just couldn't get things to work for me. The thread kept bunching up on the underside of my quilt sandwich, and no matter how I changed my thread tension, re-threaded my needle, re-inserted my bobbin, and checked the feed dogs, I simply couldn't get things going right. Extra frustrating because I only have a tiny portion left to quilt, and I was hoping to get the quilting done and binding attached today. Instead, I forced myself to push back from my sewing table, shut things down, and vow to have another go when I was feeling fresher. No point ruining the rest of my Sunday over a bit of uncooperative thread! Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong? I'm sure it's something simple and obvious, but I can't figure it out, and the manual for my machine isn't shedding much light on anything, except to indicate thread tension...

 Despite today's frustration, Bee Blessed yesterday was a fantastic afternoon of productivity and sociability! At our last meeting, I handed over (after an embarrassingly long delay) a quilt top I'd been working on for what seemed like forever - the vision in aqua and yellow of my last post. We didn't have the materials for the backing and binding that day, so I started working on a new stripe-y quilt top intended for an older couple, using lots of lovely, warm browns, tans, and creams. This week, I kept going with this stripe-y quilt. In the throes of my productivity - I was determined to finish the 25 squares by the end of our meeting yesterday - I neglected to take any photos, but each square consists of six 2 1/2 inch strips sewn together in a two dark, two medium, two light pattern. The idea is that we'll lay them out in such a way to create a lovely repeated zigzag pattern... can't wait to keep going with it at our next get together!

 While I worked away on that, the lovely Ruth prepared a fantastic pieced back for the vision in aqua and yellow quilt. Doesn't it look fantastic?!
xx Tina

Comments

  1. Sarah7 October 2012 at 21:52

    THe backing will be fab for your yellow/aqua quilt top. Love the teamwork of Bee Blessed!

    You did the right thing by drawing back from the FMQing and not spoiling the rest of your day, but I sympathise with your frustration. Sadly, I can offer no helpful advice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Leanne7 October 2012 at 21:56

    It might be that you need a new or different needle. I use a 90/14 topstitch needle to free motion quilt. The other thing I mostly do is leave the feed dogs up and - when I remember, it works without it - I put a super slider (a silicon mat with a hole for the needle) over them. I just set the stitch length to zero and change nothing else. Sometime the thread bunches because I move the quilt too fast around the corners too. Sometimes if it is just not working well, I take all the thread off the machine, clean the machine, take out the bobbin too and then rethread, or change to another bobbin and spool and rethread. Don't give up you will figure out the trick.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Judith, Belfast8 October 2012 at 00:21

    Are you remembering to put the presser foot fully down? If you are lowering the feed dogs, you might need to keep your tension at the default setting but reduce the stitch length. I agree with Leanne re: change of needle. It also helps to have the same thread top and bottom too! Good luck! Jxo

    ReplyDelete
  4. Simply Sew9 October 2012 at 19:51

    Can't be of any help I'm afraid but the pieced back looks great.!!!!!
    Still not got upto my sewing room.:(

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fabulous Fabric-y Fun this Saturday

Image
Not quite what you had in mind?! Read on...  Thursdays are prime-time thinking-ahead days for me. Already thoroughly sick of the workweek by about Tuesday, I yearn for Thursdays as a kind of sign that I can now legitimately begin planning my weekend festivities. In that vein, here’s a suggestion for this coming Saturday: the Quilting Exhibition & Open Day at Christian Fellowship Church (CFC) , Belmont Road, Belfast. The brainchild of Judith of Just Jude , the Quilting Exhibition & Open Day is designed to showcase some of the wonderful work the students in Judith’s Rags to Bags sewing classes , which also take place in CFC, have been producing. It’s on from 10am to 3 pm, and entry is free, with complimentary tea and coffee on offer (always a bonus, especially if the weather is anything like it is today!) There’ll also be various stalls selling cakes, fabrics, and crafts as well as loads of information about Judith’s classes and local charity quilting groups...
Read more

Almost there!

Image
Well, after devoting much of my weekend to it, my Double Irish Chains quilt is all but finished. Phew! All I have to do, as you can see from the pic below, is hand sew the binding - the perfect project for those lazy days of my New Hampshire holiday next week. A rare spot of sunshine demanded that I take this photo in the front 'garden'. There were a few miscalculations along the way, as well as a couple of unfortunate fabric mis-cuts due to sheer exhaustion, but eventually, I got there. I briefly contemplated free machine quilting when I'd gotten the quilt sandwich put together, but I quickly ruled that out in respect for my sanity. Instead, I followed the chains themselves, quilting diagonal lines in an unobtrusive cream thread. The effect, I think, is perfect, as the diagonals emphasise and draw attention to the chains while still giving the eye a little something to work with in the large cream-coloured patches of fabric. A glimpse of the back   For the ...
Read more

A Humble Crumble

Image
Although we only have a tiny front garden about the size of our couch, my hubby has managed to cultivate a veritable green grocer's selection of fruit, veg, herbs and flowers. Beware if you ever come to visit .... despite the postage-stamp size (and shape) of the 'garden' - really just a collection of assorted tubs, buckets, pots, and troughs in which nestle, among other things, carrots, leeks, and courgettes - hubby will insist on giving you a full tour. Ooh-ing and aah-ing will be expected, and uninterested parties will be treated with distinct disdain. Even I, more familiar than most with the wonderful fecundity that is our front garden, am treated to  near daily updates of what's going on with the leeks, or the peas, or the strawberries, or.... well, you get the point. Home grown strawberries Not having a green thumb myself, I'm far more interested in harvesting and eating the fruits of hubby's labours (literally). This year, there was a bumper crop of...
Read more