Merry Christmas!!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year!! It's been great to meet a lot of new people in this last year and to continue so many wonderful friendships. May 2012 bring everyone only good!!!!Bernie

Topstitchers Club

We have just finished another year of Club. I can't believe how fast it went by!! I want to congratulate everyone on how great your projects looked! I've never seen so many people do their homework.  This year was the most enjoyable one for Shelley and me since we started Club 15 years ago. You have been a great group and we hope to see you again next year. Thanks for making this such a pleasure!! Bernie

Barbara

Hi Barbara, Your question just showed up last night, even though it says it was posted 8 days ago. I check this every day but the question area showed as totally blank for a few days. I tried to answer twice, but my answer did not show up. I guess this technology has not been perfected! Let's get to your technology. It's a tough one to call without seeing the machine. It could be fibres caught in the presser bar bushing, or, possibly the adjustment screw where the lifter bar goes into the machine has come loose. If that was the case, the bar might feel a bit floppy. I am at the Cloth Shop on Tuesdays. It might be worth it to let me see the machine. I don't think it will be anything serious and we can get you fixed up quickly! Bernie
P.S Re: hitting your hand against the foot. You would have to hit it pretty hard
to dislodge anything. Does the foot look like it is not lined up straight with the
lines on the needle plate?

Anita

Hi Anita, Thanks for your question. Thanks for sending the picture to Shelley. I'm pretty sure that you need to tighten your bobbin tension. It is also possible that you have something lodged under the tension spring of the bobbin case itself, ie, thread or lint. Let me know if this helps and if not we'll explore some other possibilities. Bernie

Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild

     Shelley and I would like to thank FVMQG for the recent invitation to speak at their monthly meeting. We very much enjoyed seeing the show and tell and can see that there some very talented people in this new guild. We would also like to congratulate Cynthia Frenette for her excellent showing at the West Coast Quilt and Fibre Art Challenge. Way to go!!
     Thank you for your attention during our talk about machine tension. I hope it helps someone down the road!

The needle plays a big role

Yesterday, I was looking at a machine that was giving a customer problems. Here and there under the fabric, she got a tiny loop of top thread. Since she had told me that she put in a new needle, I looked at a number of other things to solve the issue. Everything checked out o.k. I put in a new needle and bingo, all was good. Even new needles have a certain percentage of defects. So, sometimes, it's worth it to at least try another needle  and see if it makes the difference. Cheers!

 P.S. A new needle, means one out of the package, not one out of the pin cushion!!

Patience

I'm learning a few lessons these days. I always thought that I was a very patient person. I'm finding out that my patience was limited to machines or to people. I see now that I'm not good with situations that are out of my control. Who knew!! I guess I have to figure out how to deal with things that I can't hurry or affect to my satisfaction. How come it took this long to realize that? Oh well, new motto: It is what it is!

Carrier service

Here are some pictures of a recent carrier service I did on a Bernina 1130. You can see the pins and lint in stuck in the machine where a normal service doesn't reach. Also, this machine had the old style feed block. That was replaced. This kind of service is good to do on Berninas from Models 1000 to 1630. It's not necessary every time, but, if you've never done it, you won't be sorry. The stuff that you see stuck in the feed mechanism is not accessible in a regular service.