Originally Posted by
oldtnquiltinglady
You did a great job on your first quilt. Congratulations. You took on more than I might have when you discovered the faulty leaders. Smart job. Where did you find zippers that long? Did you buy the machine new? Have you worked your way through the bobbin situation yet? If you have older sewing machines, just keep trying their bobbin winders 'til you find one that has the same size stem as your LA bobbins. That happened to me with my first quilting machine, and a SM repairman told me how to find one that would work. Love your work, keep on keeping on (talk the hubby into loading for you (my son loads mine and most of the time, quilts them).
JoAnn
Making the leaders was easier and quicker than researching which kind I wanted, how to make them, how to load them, etc! The zippers I found online - I ordered "10 gauge" which is a pretty large zipper used for sleeping bags. I think it was zippers.com ... and they have all kinds of sizes.
My long arm is a used Voyager 17 which I understand is a "stretched" Vintage Singer - so I was quite surprised when the bobbin didn't fit ANY of my vintage Singer or other brand machines (I have 14 vintage machines). My husband did have a good idea though ... I could replace the bobbin winder motor with a motor from one of my vintage machines - just need to figure out how to affix the ball bushing.
I'll skip on talking hubby into loading the quilt for me, he already did/does enough by A) letting me house the machine at his shop, set the frame up for me, balanced it, rigged up the electrical wiring so none of the wires interfere with the motion of the machine, helped me install the leaders, and came through in a pinch on the bobbin winder. He's very supportive, I want to keep it that way or instead of supportive it will be cumbersome to him.
thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm hyped to get my next one loaded. Going to attempt something more complicated.