Mini Cover and Table Runner...

The Kenmore Mini Ultra has its own cover now. I can't tell you how much I like that double sided quilted fabric from Joann's. It already has two side and batting. Can't get better - I had this remnant and just measured on the little guy and sewed this. Yes, I guess I could have tried matching the front seam slightly better, but there ya go. In other news, my table runner has turned out to be a free motion sampler in some ways. After stippling in the center, I did the sides in a different color - still in the geese pattern on the sides that is, and then I tried four spirals - one in each corner and am now doing ocean wavy stuff down the long and short sides to finish, and then comes binding.  After crying over broken threads on the Janome, I pulled the Pfaff up into prime FM position and had no more problems. I am using giant cones of Maxi-Lock for the top quilting and I think I have Masterpiece in the bobbin.  I have ordered bobbin washers for the Janome, they came, and when I have tried them out but good on a pieced sample sandwich I will report findings. Anyway, to do that I need to piece another small top of something. Thinking about that right now. I have noticed a real difference between quilting FM on a nice smooth sample sandwich and then on a pieced top. The seaming of piecing makes a difference to the Janome for sure. Meanwhile, I have some garment repair to do, so of course must set up yet another sewing machine to do that with! Good thing we have more than one sewing machine in our arsenal, or more than two, eh? Another point to ponder - time has passed and it is now almost time to register online for the Vermont Quilt Festival! That means Spring has finally begun to sprung. Very soon now...

A Break for some fun...Kenmore Mini Ultra

A new to me Kenmore Mini Ultra, found at the pawn shop in Seattle and snapped up and sent to me by my son and daughter-in-law! Apparently another machine not used much at all, accessories still in place, and the only thing missing is the manual. Luckily Sears still has the Manual online, along with the Service Manual. Does the few stitches well, and the buttonhole is fine. Kind of noisy, but I did oil her and put in a new needle of course - who knows where that needle had been? For anyone who wants to search for the manual the model number is 385.11206300. It has duplicate pages - English, then Spanish and French. Since the machine takes screw on feet, it seems odd that it doesn't come with a screw driver! There is a tiny package of Organ needles in there and the buttonhole foot, a rather junky seam ripper, and the red thread spool felt, the buttonhole foot and two bobbins, and then a cover plate (plastic) for the feed dogs? Makes you wonder if darning was one of the main uses they thought we would put the machine to, as I doubt free motion quilting would be very good on this machine, although perhaps you could do small projects fine. Everything stitches out pretty well. NOW to the best part. This machine makes a very nice well wound bobbin! I aim to make this my bobbin winder, as the price is less than the expensive bobbin winders out there, and it makes a fine bobbin. After buying one of those regrettable little bobbin winding machines, a very sad tale in itself, I will use this instead and wind all the bobbins for my Janomes that I want - as in prior to quilting when I want several on hand and don't want to stop each time to wind them. Welcome to your new happy home, little Blue sewing machine!

Boy Quilts are Done...YEA!

After whizzing through the binding on the Janome 6300 with the walking foot, all is done! I have shipped them, and hope they get there in time to keep two little guys warm for the rest of this winter and early Spring! The odd thing is that the J6300 doesn't have any problems with thread at all when sewing regular things, but only when  doing FMQ.

After experimenting with other threads and other measures in order to come to a FMQ nirvana, I have found that Bottom Line top and bottom, and putting the feed dogs in the up position, and setting the stitch length to 0.0 improves the FM greatly. Kudos to Leah Day for the dogs up thing. She says she always sews with dogs up. Interesting. Other folks disagree with her surmise that the modern machines are set to work interdependently tension-feed-dogs-stitching but I think she is on to something. In fact, I also skipped putting the thread through the last thread guide - that one right at the needle bar itself - the thread tends to get caught there as it goes through. I am still experimenting though, and will try some So Fine #50 next time - probably tomorrow.

Meanwhile I am designing a quilted coffee table runner that will use the leftovers from my Flying Geese quilt and be sort of definitely scrappy. The middle seam will not be a perfect pointy geese thing at all because I am combining two pieces I cut off that quilt because it was too long. Very unorthodox, but then I will have sashing on it and hopefully the same binding as the larger quilt or the binding I put on the Boy Quilts. I have lots of leftover binding.

Also in the works are two pair of pants. I need to use up some fabric here to make room for quilting stuff, and I have two pieces of really nice beige-to tan bottom weight material here. I am going to do a tracing of my favorite elastic waist pants and use that pattern. I know the alteration I must do to get a good fit in the back now.

Vicissitudes and Solutions...

About 50% of the way into doing free motion on the J6300, it started to break thread. I tried everything and every little nuance I could think of - change needle, change thread, change bobbin tension, change top tension, do odd incantation, I tried it all. I read one idea which was to let the horizontally wound thread wind off horizontally and rigged up a way it could easily do that, as that is what the thread folks recommend, and that did help the thread to come off more easily - I could tell the improvement, however it only allowed a few more inches to be sewn without a breakage. Fellow quilters and people with a lot more experience than I have gave me a myriad of ideas, and reading quilting forums did as well. Some of those ideas I have filed away and some I tried. Some ideas have other uses and are great. One idea was to put the ironing board up on the side of my sewing - on the left - as a better surface for the quilt to rest upon. Great idea, but it didn't help the quilting. However, it is a great idea and I am doing it on the Pfaff. I think partially the batting - being rather slubby in portions, and the backing being slubby as well - well, that didn't help. But the fact that 50% went fairly well tells me that when I have time, and maybe a different quilt sandwich that isn't as heavy as a flannel quilt with thick Warm and Natural batting, well then I can probably do some nice FMQ on this Janome 6300. Meanwhile I finished the quilt on the Pfaff. I have to say that FM on the Pfaff is a complete no issue undertaking - the Pfaff sews whatever you put under the foot, and it has more harp space than the Janome if you count the height of the machine itself - I can get more quilt through that baby.  It handles whatever thread you want to use top and bottom, and I used King Tut on top and Masterpiece in the bobbin, but it will sew with any thread I have ever tried. I had no thread breakage and no problems at all. I finished the quilt top today. Now to finish the other quilt - that one is getting straight line quilting on the Janome, and going along nicely with the walking foot. I love the speed with which the Janome can do these stitch in the ditch lines. Now to begin making the binding. Going to bind it on the Janome using the walking foot, as I did on my first quilt last year.

This is the way to get a horizontal spool to run off its thread correctly on a machine with a thread antennae and the thread spool pins below the level of the top of the machine. I used three spool caps and a drinking straw I cut down. Two spool caps under the spool of King Tut and one on top. Luckily I have several machines (and the Superior Thread thread holder which has several gizmos with it) here to use the accessories of for something like this, and three diameters of drinking straws. I didn't realize I had the three types of straws. Good to have these odd things on hand! This was a suggestion on a forum somewhere on the web about difficulties quilting with a Janome 6600, so this family of machines has been talked about a lot on the web and there are a lot of helpful people out there adding to our knowledge. I imagine this is true of whatever machine you buy these days.   By the way you notice that you bypass the thread antennae and leave them down for this application. You thread directly into the first thread holder on the machine itself.