Railroadersbrat

I swear, I think the stars and planets are suddenly working against me. After I put the borders on my sister's and niece's quilts, I went through and cleaned my machine like I always do after a major project. I take the needle off, needle plate off, get down into the main section under the bobbin, pull out fluffs and tuffs of lint, everything is going great. I had to order some more thread, decided to go with Connecting Threads this time, so when I'm done cleaning out my machine, I put it back together, put in a new needle, rethread the machine with my Connecting Threads white and.....

Suddenly, I'm skipping stitches. I rethread the entire machine because I know my machine is squeaky clean, I even used my portable vacuum and a rechargeable air blower, pop the bobbin out, only to discover that it had a major crack in it, I'm thinking 'okay, there's the problem', so I get a new bobbin, thread that with the cracked bobbin's thread, rethread the bobbin, go to sew.....nope, still skipping stitches.

I rethread again...nope. I pop in a new needle....nope. Reclean the top of my machine with the air blower...nope. I even double checked on the needle size...nope. I'm getting frustrated but I'm also getting scared because I'm thinking something is wrong with my machine (and yes, I did check the tension and....nope). I get on Amazon, where I bought the thread originally, to find out the size of the thread because the sticker had fallen off weeks ago and I couldn't find it on the spool.

Long story short - right thread, right way to thread my machine, bobbin is correct.....wrong size needle. I swear I had the right sized needle, so I double check my stash, I accidentally grabbed the wrong size and didn't even think twice about it. I put the new needle in, adjust the tension back to where I had it...perfect, beautiful stitches.

Palm to the forehead and a good giggle, too.

This wouldn't be so bad, but I am in the process of auditioning postage stamp blocks for a quilt for my other half and I, so I was in the process of trying to figure out if I want a true 1/4" seam or a scant, so every time I was running the strips through and finding skipped stitches, I was losing my cookies!

I am now in the process of finding all my spools that don't have any information on them, going onto Amazon to find out what size thread they are, then using a fine tipped Sharpie to write on the bottom of the spool what size needle I need to use for it.

Almost an entire afternoon lost because for one second, I didn't think to check myself when I grabbed my needles. The things we go through as quilters, sometimes!

copycat

Thank you for telling us your story. It will be a reminder to me to check my needle size to match the thread. I'm happy you figured it out before you took the machine in for a check up.

toverly

Oh My. So glad you found out the problem. Never thought about needle to thread. Great idea to mark the threads. Thanks. Happy Sewing.

QuiltMom2

Glad you figured it out. I have days when I'm halfway convinced that there are gremlins working mischief in my sewing room.

toogie

I’m glad you got it going again. I got my and my granddaughter’s going again too. Old as I am I was so happy I think I could try to cut a flip….well maybe not, but you know how happy I am and didn’t cost a thing.