I really did it this time!!!!
 

I was working on my long arm machine this afternoon trying to finish a quilt that I loaded yesterday. Everything was going along smoothly till I got to the end of it. That is when I saw that the backing was about 3 inches shorter than the top. Well, it was too late to fix it without pulling it off of the machine and adding more to it. So, I thought, I'll just cut it off and it will be okay. I decided I'll quilt just as close to the end as I could. WEll, wrong thing to do!!! I hit a pin and broke the needle. When I replaced the needle the machine would not sew backwards; only forwards. It would hang up and not go anywhere! After trying everything, I finally decided that I had knocked it out of time. So, I got the owners manual down and studied it. Then I got my screwdriver. I followed the directions but got lost in them. I finally decided to just put the thing back together. I loaded up a practice piece and started stitching. Cross you fingers!! I think I might have it working again!!!

Fingers crossed! :)

Everything but my eyes crossed!!! :)

Hope you are back on track! Thread basting is preferable to pin basting. (You probably figured that out now.) :p Been there, done that, regarding the short backing. I once tried to make a quilt as large as possible, and had the backing too close to the length of the top--ended up adding a strip across the bottom. The backing will actually be a bit longer than the quilt top once it's all done, because it's on the outside of the sandwich as it rolls up. It's like rolling up a magazine and the edges of the outer pages never line up with the rest.

Fingers crossed.

Oh I hope it is ok!!!!!!!!!!

I've taken shortcuts that turned out to be nightmares also. Hope you have your problem solved and your machine in working again.

Toes crossed too!!

I'm trying to figure out how a longarm could only sew forward, and not backward. Hope you got it fixed.

Beleive me.... I've been trying to figure it out also. When you start to go backward, it hangs in the fabric and when you push it on, it takes ugly stitches and is a ball of thread underneath. stitches look good when going forward. If all else fails, I'll call my Nolting girl!!

That sounds like there might be a bit of thread caught in the bobbin area. But usually that messes up sewing in every direction.

I don't know if this applies to your problem, but are you sure that your needle is inserted exactly in the correct orientation (on the Innova it's scarf to the back and eye threading from the front) and that it is exactly centered over the hole going down to the bobbin?

If it does turn out to be the timing and you have an issue on the Innova site (www.innovalongarm.com) they have a tutuorial on timing. Most of the long arms are the same or very similar in this part of the machine. I sent my husband who always had a time getting it just right on my Prodigy over there and he said it was very helpful. It may not help your situation but wanted to throw it out there just in case.. GOOD LUCK!

Oh no!!!!!!!! I hope you got it fixed!!! I REALLY really hope you get it fixed!!! Lol. S

fingers crossed hoping you got it fixed.

Hope u get it fixed wit very little inconvience

My fingers are crossed for you, I'm not brave enough to try to fix my machines, unless it's something I can easily see. I'm afraid I'll make it worse and more costly.

Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. I hope your effort to fix the problem is successful and that you are running again. I have gotten myself in those kind of situations. Most often, when I had to rely on myself and the manual I found that I could do what was necessary when I had to. My husband was away and it was too far to a repair facility. I;m sure you have learned a valuable lesson.

Still not fixed!!! I've worked on it for 2 days now. It sews beautifully forward but every 6 or so inches, it makes a looptie on the bottom. I am so frustrated I could scream!!

I did that to my APQS and had to have the "doctor" out to fix it. By the time I got thru trying to fix it, I really had it messed up. Good lesson for me, no pins close to machine when I'm sewing.

I discovered that my backing was short in one corner so I had to piece it and add a 2 x 9 strip to make it come out even.

Fingers crossed & here's hoping that things work out for you.

Fingers and toes crossed!

I am so sorry to hear that you are having problems and hope you get it fixed quickly. I understand how frustrating it can be. Can you call Nolting and have them walk you through a resolution?

For future reference, here is a You Tube video giving great instructions on how to add to your backing without removing it from the frame: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs5Dw2raqfQ.

Hope you are back up and quilting soon!

oh my you are a better woman than I am, I would have thrown up my hands in despair and sat down and cried!

hope you have it all worked out, up and running and dancing with glee

What a series of unfortunate events! Good luck!

My husband, who fixes machines, offers this advice: when setting the timing, always check final adjustment by turning flywheel forward to ensure that the timing and needle/hook clearance is correct. Do this before tightening the screws. Check again after tightening - sometimes a screw that is not flat can change the location of your hook. Also, tighten your screws as you would lugnuts on your tires, alternating between screws as you tighten them evenly. The second thing is to check needle/hook clearance. On many longarms there should be no space between needle and hook at rest. Too much space will prevent the needle from catching the thread when pulling the machine toward you. On my Crown Jewel and some others, rotating the needle between 5 and 7 o'clock may help.
I hope this helps you. If you wish, you can PM me and we will try to walk you through this. Ask us how we know about timing! Jeanette and Jim

Oh dear...I'm hoping it wasn't my quilt that you were working on. I feel terrible that you're having problems...I know it can be very frustrating. Hope you can get it to running like it should. {{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}

Here's hoping that all is well.

I hope you get your machine up and running soon.

From now on you need to measure your backing and your quilt with a tape measure before loading. This is the second time I have seen that you posted your backing wasn't long enough. I know we all want to get to the fun part right away but taking a few moments to measure before loading can save you a lot of heartache, trouble and by the sounds of this case, money!

good luck.

well I just started long arm quilting and have just discovered that my backing in 1 1/2 inches too short. :( . Next week is my lesson on how to operate this machine so that is the 1st thing I want to learn.

I agree. This is one of the really not intuitive things that can mess up in one direction only.
You didn't mention if you've checked this yet?

Just on a lark,... set your tension back to the complete defaults, rethread the machine and try again. Perhaps something got bumped while you were adjusting. I get those occasionally when my tension is too loose by a smidge.

And check the needle orientation.

This video from Matt Sparrow may help you out with some of that:
http://manquilter.com/

After taking a class with him, the only times I end up too short are
1. It's a charity quilt and the backing supplied is exactly the same size as the top. For these I stitch a leader onto the quilt and butt the top of the top right up against it, and hope for the best. Usually, I only have to trim about 3/8" at worst at the bottom.
2. I accidentally rotate either the back or the top when loading. Matt's process does stop this as long as you're paying attention.

Piecemaker did you get ALL OF the needle out of the material? Sometimes, I don't get that finest point out. Good luck.

pins are a nightmare! hope you got it fixed!

You are blessed. On the other matter, what would be wrong with seaming on another piece to fill up the short end? I did that one time by hand just because I didn't want to take it all apart. Nobody let on if they noticed. I pressed and starched it to death and it worked well.

did that myself not too long ago! Hang in there,better days are ahead ;)

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