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Had a brief panic attack yesterday...

Had a brief panic attack yesterday...

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Old 09-13-2010, 08:58 AM
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Fortunately I worked it out before completely losing it.

After finishing a rag quilt for my nephew, I thoroughly cleaned my machine to get rid of the residual lint.

Last night, I started a new project and wasted quite a bit of thread when the fabric was not advancing. I disassembled the machine again, checked to make sure that the feed dogs were not blocked and could raise and lower correctly. Still nothing, more thread wasted.

Then I happened to look at the stitch length indicator. Yep - set to a big fat 0 as the last stitches done were to lock the threads.

So, fixed that and created a very impressive birds nest. Disentangled the thread from the bobbin mechanism and started over. Fortunately before starting the next bird's nest I asked myself why the tension would be so terrible - hmmm - could it be that the machine is not correctly threaded AT ALL.

The nearest I can figure is that when I finished winding bobbins I laid the thread over the top of the machine and when I sat down to get started again, simply threaded the needle, assuming I'd run through the other important contact points.

All's well that ends well. I did sew 10 strip sets last night for the 9-patch challenge that I'm participating in. And I was able to solve the problem myself.

Cheers, K
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:03 AM
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I understand what you are saying. I have done things like that and it has taken me hours to fix.
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:08 AM
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YAH, !!
Somthing goes wrong here, and I do the same!! Yeikes, most of the time I just need to plug it in... :)
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:34 AM
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Isn't it surprising that each of us thinks our errors are unique?
We all do it.
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:37 AM
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Originally Posted by needles3thread
Isn't it surprising that each of us thinks our errors are unique?
We all do it.
I figure there are many who have done this here on the board. In my house though, I am on my own as my DH would just scratch his head and commiserate. My next step was going to be to come here and try to figure out why the feed dogs weren't pulling the fabric.

And I did learn from reading here that the birds nest on the bottom was a top thread tension problem. So I'm very thankful to have this resource.

Cheers, K
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:41 AM
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I think we all go through this at least once. I am glad you worked it out! I am always cleaning my machine and yes, I often mis-thread a machine.
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:44 AM
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Learned something new, I didn't know that a birds nest was caused from a top thread tension. Thanks
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Old 09-13-2010, 09:45 AM
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Originally Posted by CorgiNole
Originally Posted by needles3thread
Isn't it surprising that each of us thinks our errors are unique?
We all do it.
I figure there are many who have done this here on the board. In my house though, I am on my own as my DH would just scratch his head and commiserate. My next step was going to be to come here and try to figure out why the feed dogs weren't pulling the fabric.

And I did learn from reading here that the birds nest on the bottom was a top thread tension problem. So I'm very thankful to have this resource.

Cheers, K
Me too, sometimes it just helps to say it, or spell. :-D Best part is someone would have had the anwser. :-D
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Old 09-13-2010, 10:03 AM
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I am happy to hear that you got it all worked out and are happily sewing now :D:D:D
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Old 09-13-2010, 11:16 AM
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I like to blame my sewing Gremilins when things are done incorrectly in my room LOL. Glad you figured it out. I do not like those Bird nests. LOL
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