J Miller!!!!!! Your wife on a leash. I sure hope you did not try that. Your cat is adorable and her toes very interesting. I love cats but we can not have them as several of my children are very allergic to them. So we got Nina, the 7 lb hypoallergenic doggie, that looks a bit like a long hairy cat. She even sleeps in a cat bed. Sssshhhhhh... don't tell Nina that.

Joe, it's not cold out if you wear a coat, hat, scarf, gloves, boots (plus jeans and sweater underneath) and keep moving. The sun is so pretty on the snow though you probably don't have our complete snow cover (2+ feet minimum) and 6+ foot snowbanks so your landscape isn't as sparkly. I didn't consider the four foot drift behind my car on Thursday pretty.

I thought of you today. I've had to do tension adjustments on a machine for the first time since 1973. My 'perfect' 301 had tension problems for the first time in the 2 years I've had her. I'd say it was the rayon thread except it's been used before. My MW 15 clone's tension was completely screwed up. That one took a lot of adjusting, both top and bottom, but now it's perfect. I hope that was a one time only thing - I have no desire to duplicate the problems I had with my Kenmore from 1961 to 1973.

Annaquilts,

That was a joke, the truth is I'm the one on the leash :(

My wife's youngest son was allergic to about everything when he was a kid. Including cats. My wife fixed that problem by bathing the cats to keep the dander down, and making him home made stuffed toys out of hypoallergenic washable materials.
He still has the first teddy bear she ever made him.



irishrose,

I'm thinking some tension problems are caused by gremlins. Machines that sew along perfectly then suddenly the tension goes wonky. Our 4622A has just done that. I've done everything but remove the top tension and take it apart to clean the assembly.
It went from sewing beautifully with the adjusting knob on '3' to be too tight. I finally got it to sew again but now the knob is on '2'. Probably some lint in there somewhere.

Joe

AHA!!! Two things to relieve boredom! 1) Elaine lets go of the leash and watches Joe spin around like a crazy person. 2) rebuild the tension like you didn't - then refer to #1... Crazy Person Joe, she loves you dearly and you take good care of her - you two are a good match.

I've been finding a LOT of bobbin cases packed up lately. The lint under the spring is unreal, and of course it makes the bottom tension way too loose, making the upper un-adjustable.

Would you like some cheese with your Whine. LOl

You know what I've noticed, lots of thread we buy seems to be extremely linty and dirty. I start with a cleaned machine, and when I'm done the bobbin area is just full of lint and fuzz. I have tons of thread to use and most of it is Coats & Clarks. It's the newer stuff though that's so dirty.

Joe

I agree with you Joe. I also have and use a lot of older C&C threads, some at least 30 years old. The last spool of C&C I purchased a few months ago was made in Mexico. The old spools were made in USA. The thread strength is about the same and next time I use some newer C&C I will see if there is a difference.

Tammi, I have found a lot of packed up bobbin areas - in fact just today - I bought a Singer Fashion Mate for the cabinet - the machine was not suppose to work. How can it work when it is so impacted by lint and dried up oil?
1) Bobbin area/feed dogs solidly packed up with lint - looked like insulation
2) Dried on oil everywhere - nothing moved at all even with out lint
3) wiring not functional - machine does not power up at all
Good: the plastic gears are in tact - no cracks
What I did:
The lint is cleaned out - everything moves when I hand turn it thanks to Tri-flow
I think some fabrics shed more than others but I agree thread isn't what it once was
There will be a day for cleaning up hardened oil and very dirty linty grease
Another time for checking the wiring.
Machine should work just fine eventually...

Dunno if you ever found your blue singer 15 clone... But if not maybe its time to find one? :)

I've been so busy planning my wedding and jumping through all the proverbial hoops that I haven't even had time to finish my last machine! (I've also been completely absent from this forum!!) but a new machine is coming my way (it's a mystery singer. Haven't seen it yet) so I'm hoping it rekindles my want to play with them!