Just had to get that out of my system. It is my scream of frustration. I have those 4 quilts to finish in two weeks. I'm trying my best, but karma is out to get me. A few years ago, I bought an entire thread collection from a very well respected quilting catalog. I've made many purchases from them, and always been satisfied. However, this thread was the pits! It unwraps, tangles, and breaks. A few fellow quilters advised me to contact the company, which I did. They were so apologetic, and sent me a new batch to replace the old thread, saying they had several complaints and had remedied the situation. They may think so, but I can't say that they have. This new batch of thread is not much better than the first. And although I worked nearly two hours this morning, I quilted only 1 block. Not much progress. Finally, after a few choice words like $%&**, and @($))@!, I gave up and turned off the machine. I will start fresh tomorrow morning. But before then, I'm going to clean the bobbin raceway, and replace the needle in the machine with a universal needle. The hole in the needle on the machine is so tiny that the built-in threader won't go through it. So, maybe that's the problem. But, (to paraphrase Scarlett O'Hara), as God is my witness, I'll never be beaten again. If I get the quilts finished by the end of the weekend, you'll see photos next week. If not . . . we'll let's not even think about that.
On a lighter note, I'm writing this on my old-new laptop. We ordered the new screen for the one that met with the tires of the car, the one I loved, and it arrived yesterday. Daughter Mary, who seems to not be very mechanically inclined, but has put together several different electrical components at her old job, came over and had the new screen installed in about an hour. And so now I'm cheesin' :-), Rod has a faster, newer laptop, and we're eliminating the old desktop computer from our computer lineup. I just can't thank Mary for all she's done. She found the new screen for only $99; googled how to replace it, and made her Mommy very happy. Hope your weekend is a good one.
2 comments:
Glad you are back in action with your favorite laptop BUT...sorry to hear about the thread problems.
I sympathise so much, it always happens when it's time critical doesn't it!
Not sure if you've tried any/all of these (assuming a test piece shows perfect upper/lower tension so the threads meet in the middle of the cloth not top or underside):
1. Bigger size needle. A size 90 topstitch needle often has a groove to protect the thread - and makes a bigger hole so the thread doesn't get so worn. Washing and ironing the resulting piece closes the holes up again, even with a 100 or 110 (as long as it's medium thick plus cotton). Sometimes a teflon or microtex needle (if you've got them) works well. I recently saw a blog post where someone ties knots at intervals in dental floss tape and pulls it through their top tension mechanism to defluff it, I use an air cannister myself.
2. Obey the speed limit. If a needle change isn't enough, I limit my speed. My current machine has 4 settings, I drop one setting each time until it works better. (not a good one if you're stuck for time, but it usually works out quicker in the long run).
3. My tension. It is very weird but sometimes thread breaks because the human is too tense (very annoying in classes when my thread breaks a lot, someone else comes and sews perfectly with it because they're not stressed grrr). Roll my shoulders and waggle my hands to loosen up.
4. Top tension. Then finally, I loosen the top tension off a tiny tiny tiny bit. Sometimes it's worth using a different thread on the bottom, some threads just don't go together.
5. If all else fails, I use a different thread and make tassels or cord out of that dreadful unuseable thread! (not so easy for you with a whole range of it though)
Hope it helps!
Regards
Lois
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