Originally Posted by
vintagemotif
Spent all day quilting with my 201. Machine was working beautifully before dinner, fixed dinner, took care of family and dog, and then went back to quilting. Since the needle was sounding old, I replaced the needle and oiled the machine. I prepare all my other sections that I wanted to quilt for the evening (I'm doing a quilt as you go). Start quilting a piece only to realize the dang machine is not stitching correctly. I do everything under the sun that I know on fixing the fiasco, but nothing works. I give up and go to my Davis NVF to at least finish off the piece that I started; I get that finished. I play around with the 201 another half hour to no avail. I give up, take shower, and eat a large bowl of ice cream. Of course I can't leave the machine alone until morning. So, I go back to try one more time to get it to do the beautiful stitches that it's famous for. I say some words of encouragement. Well, she sews for me the prettiest stitches. I look at her and say not what the heck was that all about.
Sometimes I think these vintage ladies are telling us to take a break, just slow down and relax. I'm off to have a cup of camomile tea now that I know the machine is working.
May your Thanksgiving be safe, gratifying, and relaxing. Peace!
Well Monica I had a similar day yesterday with my 319w! I decided a couple of days ago to make a nice table cloth for Thanksgiving out of 3 large table runner kits I had stashed away. I made the table cloth mostly using my 1940-50's Morse - Japanese 15 clone - because I was working on the kitchen bar with the table cloth spread on the table - designing it as I sewed. Besides, I fully believe that all my machines need to be used occasionally to keep them oiled, etc. I got the table cloth done and big enough for the 112" table, then I decided I didn't want to quilt it, just finish the seams and serge the edges so it would be nice and flat and look more like a table cloth than a quilt. I went to the 319w, who I haven't really got to know yet, to finish all the seams. I tried the built in zig zag, the #3 overcast cam and a few other stitches, but I'd get a nice stitch then skip stitches. I got very frustrated because I did everything under the sun to fix the problem, still skipped stitches. I finally realized there was a screw missing on what the book refers to as the "Bight Control." I don't think the screw affects the stitch quality - I think it is just a lock screw? Candace do you know if the screw on the left side of the "Bight Control" actually does something? Anyway, since I was only finishes seams, it didn't matter that the stitches look like crap so I kept working with different settings. I finished all the seams with a nice zig zag, then long stitches - no zig, then zig zag - and I quit!
I did love treadling the 319w - even though, I couldn't get a nice consistant stitch!
Nancy