silly me and question

[sewingpup]

Well...my tension has been off...looks fine...then the bobbin railroad tracks...then looks fine...etc.....so....today off to the basement determined to check everything....I have my nephews king sized flannel quilt loaded and I am ready.....Got out the manual, the air compressor, the oil, WD40, new needles, new bobbin case ready.....decided to leave bobbin tension alone for now....decided to really, really, look at the thread path...I know I had checked this before...everything looked oK...right?  No wrong....what is this?..why doesn't the little tension spring move when I pull on the thread through the needle...it should move sometime shouldn't it?...oh...Look...there is a little metal hook looking thingy sticking out from the machine on the right side of the machine a bit after the tension assembly.....umm..wonder what that is for...unusual to have something like that on a machine with no thread going through it....oh!  Light bulb goes on!  maybe I should put the thread through it.....ummm...those tension problems seem to be gone!  DUHHHH!  I can't believe it took me a week and a half to figure this out!  OK, now for a couple of questions....

 

!.  I know there is a suggestion to turn the needle to about 6:30 position to correct some stitch problems....my question is what do you all use to know when the needle is a 6:00 or 6:30....I tried a flower pin but it was too thick...so I cut a thin piece of heavy paper which fit through the needle but bent too easy to tell if the needle was straight...is there a special tool or something for this?

 

2.  I used a poly packed batting...hobbs polydown....the batting was in the package pretty tight and when I took it out, very folded and wrinkled.  I opened it up and let it sit for about week and then loaded it....I am developing a bubble in this batting right where the outermost layer was on the outermost part when it was in the package...looks like it really bulged out of shape....I have been thinking that maybe I could just cut a wedge out of the bulging part and tape it with the batting tape....does this make sense?  Are there other solutions....I have about 25% of the quilt quilted but need to deal with this somehow...open to suggestions and also recommendations to avoid this problems in the future...thanks for any ideas....Lin

[ffq-lar]

Yep, the thread needs to go under the L-hook after the tension assembly. Great sleuthing!

 

First for question #1--I use a pin inserted in the eye to check if the needle hole is straight. It sticks in far enough to give me a good idea.

Question #2--I think your solution to cut out a wedge of the bubble is brilliant! Cut a slit across the bubble and lay the batting flat. Then trim away where the batting is doubled. The batting tape is a great idea.

You've solved all your own problems! Great feeling, huh?

[shirleyl]

Linda got it, you answered your own questions. As for the tension problem, welcome to the club, you hope you only do this once, but guess what it will happen again. A flower head pin, should stick in the needle just enough to know the setting. I think every machine has there own sweet spot. I use the fusible batting tape to put batting so together all the time, it works great.

Shirley

[Georgene]

To avoid the batting problem in the future AND to be able to use it right away, I put it in the dryer for about 15 to 20 minutes. That usually takes out all the wrinkles and folds in cotton batting and blends. I've never used the Hobbs poly down so I can't attest to it working on that, but it might be worth a try.

P.S. I love how you can laugh at yourself. Your story was funny, and we've all been there. When I first got my machine, I couldn't understand why the needle kept breaking, until I saw a picture of a quilt going UNDER the black leveler bar.

[RitaR]

I doubt there is a person who sews, dsm, long arm or serger, who hasn't threaded it wrong,

at least once.  I know I have.. and yes, it often is that L shaped hook.. for some reason Penny

throws the thread off that hook, and I do some frogging until I get it back to good stitching.

 

  Rita

[mamu]

I usually use the old needle putting it into the new needle hole to hold the new needle in position while I tighten it.

 

As for the batting... you said that you were using a poly batting.  If the batting tape is the kind you iron to put two edges together, I would be very careful about putting an iron near that batting or you might end up with quite a mess of melted fibers!

[sewingpup]

Thanks for the heads up on the heat....and well, I found out the hard way....I thought I would try a little heat like there would be in a dryer to see if I could reduce that bulge before cutting into it....bright idea!  NOT!  I decided to use a heat gun I used for embossing cards....well...that sucker melted a hole in the batting in a blink of an eye...yes...it is poly batting...I am rethinking using poly in the future based on how fast it melted in bed quilts.....  so...what I ended up doing was cutting a small sliver about the length of the original batting package and hand stitching the seams together....the tape was that kind you use an iron on....and I will test it later...but I think maybe I will just use the tape on cotton....I am almost done with the quilt...now wondering if I will run out of batting....glad I have no more kings in my immediate future.....

[peglu]

It might just be my experience, but I have found that Hobbs batting bunches and bubbles up a lot more than QD. Just my experience. Brilliant idea about the dryer though. Thanks.

 

Peggy

[sewingpup]

update.....I got the quilt done and the binding is on.....the tension seems to be just find throughout the whole quilt with no further adjustments after I put the thread back where it belongs and loosened the top tension a bit.  WOW, this is one big quilt...my nephew gave me the measurements he wanted and it is 112 X 118.  He has a king bed.....and wanted it to almost touch the floor all the way around....it is also heavy....even up here in northern Minnesota I think it is gonna be a warm quilt.  This also was my first flannel quilt on Lucey....I could tell when she hit the seams where I had pieced the backing but no problems other than a different sound.  If I can figure how to get a photo of this monster now that we have a snow filled back yard where I usually take photos....and if I can figure out how to get the photo out of the camera and post it...I will....he wanted a "manly" quilt...so it is just a turning twenty quilt pieced out of "manly" dark flannels and I just did a basic meander on it....glad it is done...took me most of the day to get the binding on.  Thanks for the suggestions with the tension issues and and the pats on my back for my own problem solving    Maybe now I will not take so long to get the courage up to tackle tension problems.    Lin

[Sandra Darlington]

I'm glad you solved your issues and were able to finish the quilt.  I'm sure he will just love it!  I've made a few Turning Twenty quilts over the years, but my favorite  easy/big block quilt is the Yellow Brick Road.  It also works up nicely with flannel and I've used it for a few "manly" quilts as well as girly quilts. 

 

I made a flannel twin bed size quilt for my granddaughter for this Christmas.  I used Quilters Dream 100% cotton batting in it and unwashed flannel.  The first time it is washed it will shrink up lots and have a soft, old fashioned quality to it.  That is what my daughter loves.  There is enough quilting in it to distribute the crinkles evenly throughout the quilt.  I used a floral pantograph on it. I also made it plenty large enough so the shrinkage won't make it too small.