Wednesday, July 17, 2013

First efforts!

The first attempts at sewing a series of tests stitches, was a mixed bag.  Everything seemed to work as well as I thought they would, until I looked at the back of the quilt.  OK, maybe not so well.  Then I noticed that the first stitches were fairly okay when moving up and down, but not okay when going side to side I replaced the needle, after it was suggested by Lisa, a member of the HINTERBERG QUILTERS Yahoo Group.  This helped, however, I will check the rollers on the machine carriage to make sure they are well lubricated and in contact with the rails that the carriage ride on.

So far, the problems encountered seem solvable by me.  However, many questions still need answered.  Here's a few:

1.  The needle seems to "stick" when coming up through the quilt.
2.  The back rail that through the sewing machine, and takes up the quilted quilt seems way to low to take up much quilt.
3.  The "tightness" of the stitches seems too loose.

Tomorrow, when the temperature is under 90 degrees I'll re thread the machine and add more tension on the top thread.  I'll also check the rollers on the carriage. 

I am also trying to find better instructions that explain the position of the  quilt "take-up" Rail.

Maybe I'll also get a book on brain surgery and give it a try.......

4 comments:

Holee said...

I know you'll have it up and running right. I paid $15. an hour to use one in a local quilt shop. It looked great until we looked at the back...The owner was so up set that she offered to do all the stitch ripping. When I went back she had it all fixed and said it was just a small adjustment.

Tom H said...

Holee, there are lots of small adjustments to be made. But I like the challenge. Now if it would just cool off...

Sally in WA said...

My take up bar always is low when I first load a quilt. I want to keep the quilt close to the machine surface. Then as I am quilting, I have to raise the take up bar.

I might have an extra DVD on the Voyager if you are interested in it. I can send it to you. I bought the DVDs before I bought my machine, and then got another with my machine.

Tom H said...

Sally, Thanks for the offer, but I have the videos("I've got a longarm, and I'm not afraid to use it" and "Help I've been framed".) Thanks for the info on the take up bar. I got it figgered out now.