One of the most common issues that people bring machines to me for is tension.
The thing about it is that – in most cases – the tension issues are really not something that I need to address as a technician . Don’t get me wrong, there are some legitimate issues – mis-assembled tensioners or severely clogged up tensioners – to name a couple. Continue reading Fly little nestling – Ditching the Thread nests part 1
Note: Amended date! I goofed ladies and gentlemen, April 16th is the date, not March!
Update: 2014-04-09 – It looks like the Evening class is tentatively full (may be able to open 1 more spot) and there is one left open for the morning class. If you wanted to get in, now’s your chance! We’ve been chatting about the possibility of me doing the class again in the future in William’s Lake, but there’s no firm timeline for it.
OK, so it’s not quite a million miles but I bet it feels like it by the time I get home.
I’m going to be teaching people just like you how to service and restore their vintage machines in BC next month! 🙂
Beauties like this:
The Cariboo Piecemakers quilt guild has asked me to speak to the group about vintage sewing machines at their Tuesday meeting. The following day I will be doing a marathon training session.
The class is in William’s Lake, B.C. Canada (approximately 3 hours out of Kamloops) the Wednesday before Easter (March APRIL 16th) at the Pioneer Complex, and we have just added a second session and there’s currently a little room left. The tentative times for the classes are 10am to 3pm with a break for lunch and 5pm to 9pm. If you’re interested in attending, leave me a comment below or contact me here.
Here’s what I’m planning to cover: Continue reading A Million Miles – traveling to speak and teach!
Ergonomics Part 1: (This post ended up far longer than I’d intended (yeah, shocking, I know!), so I will split it into 2, and offer you part 2 tomorrow.)
Lately, I’ve noticed that I hunch a lot when I sew. This is on the longarm or at the domestic machines. The result of this is that I “hurt” and I can’t sew for long periods of time. So I thought I’d talk today a little about ergonomics, both at the stand up and sit down types of machines and your cutting table. Continue reading Back in the Saddle – Take care of your back
Note: I’ve noticed lately that the photos in the posts look blurry and low quality. This is not true if you click on them to look at them. Until I figure out what it is that’s doing this, please click on the images to see them the way I intended for them to look for you.
As some of you may know, my APQS Lucey was delivered on November 1. She waited patiently until November 5 for setup because when I bought the machine, part of the deal was for Matt from Sparrow Studioz to come set it up. You also may know him as manquilter. He’s a local quilting rockstar.
I loved this idea because I knew that she’d be set up, level and running perfectly with her leadergrips sewn in (and straight) before he left. Sure I can probably service Lucey, maybe even with one eye closed, but it doesn’t mean I want to tinker like that all the time and certainly not right out of the box. This was great peace of mind, and permission to be in creative mode, not techie mode right off the bat.
The wait was slightly agonizing. Yes, I know those of you who have known me for years are thinking “Wow, that’s the understatement of the century!” After all, I’m not known for my patience. 😉
That said, it was mostly “easy” to wait. She arrived Friday, then Saturday and Sunday I had classes at Sparrow Studioz. Monday, I had a white featherweight to service, a sewing circle (sometimes referred to as a “Stitch n B*tch”) to attend and a very well deserved chiropractor appointment. Realistically, I wasn’t going to be able to set her up before Tuesday myself anyway.
Tuesday, though… Continue reading Rockstar – In my quilt studio!
The day I went to post bail for Lucey, it happened – riiiiiippppp. Oh No! My favorite jeans! I’ve long since passed the age (and lost the figure) where I feel like I can get away with wearing ripped jeans, but patched jeans, especially form fitting ones are so uncomfortable. I’ve used every sort of patch I can think of and they all leave a bump where they are and seem to chafe a little. The best one to date though was a scrap of batik fabric.
The longer I quilt, the less I seem to be willing to “sew” – and that definitely includes darning – but not having an unlimited clothing budget means I don’t get to just throw out what has fallen apart at the seams or self destructed somewhere other than a seam.
Today, I want to talk about how to make darning a little less “horrible” for us quilters.
Ready? Pretend you’re Continue reading Bad Seamstress Blues – Patchless darning is the same as free motion
This is not likely to be a well loved post. I keep hearing something that’s making me a little crazy, and I have to get it off my chest.
Made in China, Made In Taiwan, Made In India, Made in Thailand. All of these do not have to equal worse quality.
The Far Eastern factories will build to any quality that you want. If you want higher quality, it will cost you more. Continue reading China Girl – It’s time to stop blaming China for quality issues
Update 06-30-2016: The latest batch of Singer Lube I received from the supplier is no longer suitable for use in Singer motors. As such, I’m recommending the use of Petroleum jelly.
People far smarter than me are recommending it and White Sewing machine motors of the same time period used it.
Over the last few months, I’ve been hearing that Singer Lube / Lubricant / Motor Lube (S2129) is getting really hard to find, especially here in Canada. This has been my experience as a consumer as well. Walmart used to carry it, but no longer. I believe that it may have been at Fabricland at one point. Also, no longer. With the loss of the Singer store in Edmonton, there were no longer any options I was aware of in my area. Continue reading Greased Lightning – Singer motor lube in Canada
You may have noticed in the previous post about tension that we didn’t even test sew the machine.
Yet. We will test sew it, but not just yet. You see what I’m trying to do is get the machine to a point where it’s in the ballpark first, then the rest is just small tweaks. The goal is to help you rule out the big problems, the ones that require repair, or in drastic situations, possibly a trip to the sewing machine spa.
Consider this statement:
Tension too tight on the top can also be tension too loose on the bottom. Top Tension too tight does not automatically mean bottom tension is too loose.Tension too loose on the top can also be tension too tight on the bottom. Top Tension too loose does not automatically mean bottom tension is too tight. Continue reading Bobbin’ Along – bobbin tension
Possibly the most common reason a machine ends up on my bench is for tension. Usually bird’s nests. The thing is easily 80% of the time, there’s nothing really wrong with the machine that a repair person needs to look at it. Sometimes it’s basic maintenance, sometimes it’s because someone told you at some point “DON’T YOU TOUCH THAT! EVER!”
I’m sure that the people who’ve said that meant well, but today I’m going to show you how to manage that dial properly and what to do when it’s not proper. Continue reading Fragile Tension – Tension does not have to equal stress (Updated with a video)
This past week, I had more time than I think I’ve ever had to sew. I’ve been babying my lower back this week, because the last time I thought it was “good enough” (last Friday), I set my recovery back a week, at least. So with time at the computer limited, and no lifting sewing machines, I decided it was time to finish a number of UFOs. This seemed a good opportunity to put the wonder clips through their paces.
Most of my UFOs are not quilting projects.
So on to the performance of the Wonder clips. Continue reading Review: Clover Wonder Clips
