broken needle made a hole in the fabric!

[Jane Kaman]

This has happened twice in the past month, after never happening in 3 years!  Needle began skipping stitches, thread break warning, even though there was none.  I have floppy handles that do not respond to tightening screws.  When I need to rethread, I move them upwards to make room for my large hands.  I think it is possible that both times, I accidentally hit the sew button on the handle and it took off, staying in one position, making a small hole on quilt top and large hole on quilt bottom.  The reason I say "it is possible" is that it is so traumatic, that I don't know what happened.  

APQS Lucey new since November 2021, IQBasiq, stitching left to right on last episode, don't remember first.  I am very carful inserting needle, using pin to keep it at 6:00 position with right hand, while tightening with left.  Once secure, I see if there is any wiggle, and there is usually not any.

The repair usually means asking client for extra fabric for repairs, hours of unstitching, replacing piece and loosing customer's confidence in my work. 

I also need to know how to stop it while it is in the middle of it's destruction!

Thanks for any help, Jane

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[Sue E.]

@Jane KamanWhen the needle has done this to me, I have found the easiest and best way to stop it is to just turn the entire head off (I have a Milliie). I had something like this happen to me last week when I hadn't moved my head with my IQ to the proper place and then told it to stitch. I tried to stop it before it took too many stitches but in my panic, I hit the stop/pause button too many times and the IQ didn't know what to do. Luckily I was off to the side and the only fabric that got damaged was the extra backing material and not the quilt. I reached up and turned my Millie off. The IQ was left on so I didn't lose my design or any settings.

[Jane Kaman]

Thank you, Sue!  It is entirely possible that I made the same mistake and the handle button was not the problem.  I really appreciate your response!

Here's to  smooth sailing,

 

jane