Mystery Step 1 Complete - Take a Peek!

greenmonstr — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:14:00 GMT

I was quilting a T-shirt quilt I made out of my son's old soccer T-shirts, and my Viking died again. It froze with the needle touching the fabric and the bobbin thread pulling the fabric down towards the bobbin. I had to have my husband hold the presser foot lever up so I could cut the bobbin thread and release the quilt. I had to loosen up the needle and step on the pedal so I could get the needle out just to get the quilt out of the machine. It kept balling up the bobbin thread, so I re-threaded it. I wound another bobbin. I turned the machine off and back on in a few minutes. I sewed on a scrap. I rethreaded again. Turned it off again. No dice. I gave up. I will be taking it to get fixed again. The last time I took it in to get repaired (it froze utterly and would not do anything), they told me it had just needed a tune-up. However, I discovered later that the feed dogs would not come back up after free-motion quilting until I turned the machine fully off and back on. Now this.

In the meantime, I have my mother's Kenmore sewing machine as a backup, so I set that puppy up and got into the McCall's Quilting Mystery Quilt. This was something of an adventure since the Kenmore is very different from my Viking. I had to break out the manual to discover how to wind the bobbin and change the presser foot. It was a little awkward sewing because the plexiglas insert that fits nicely around my Viking doesn't quite fit around the Kenmore, so I don't have a nice flat surface anymore. I will not lie; some of my seams are not precisely 1/4 inch, but it's okay. One thing I have learned from quilting: things will never be perfect. The same quality that makes bias a pain can work for you a little bit too. Without further ado, here is my completed Step 1:

I already had the magazine with step 2 in it but I did not look at the next step before completing this one. Once this was done, I ran for my magazine to check out step 2. HIghly anticlimactic, I would say. It's not very long. I kept thinking there was more on the next page that I was missing, because you're directed to cut pieces that aren't used in this step. It'll be interesting to see how this all goes together. Anyway, I will post the next step once it is complete.

It's appropriate that I was using my mother's sewing machine today, since this would have been her 75th birthday. She died of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) at Christmastime in 2000. My kids were 9 and 4. My son remembers her somewhat but my daughter doesn't remember her at all. I wish she could have been here so they could have gotten to know her better...she was a very active, busy, creative person with a fantastic sense of humor. Happy birthday, Mom - I'll keep you in my heart as I make this quilt with your sewing machine.

Life as a Greenmonstr : sewing machine trouble, mystery

Mystery Step 1 Complete - Take a Peek!