Minimizing Problems

As I predicted last week, I finished another throw size quilt top.  Interestingly enough I developed a few tricks to help me along the way. Tricks that helped minimize potential problems. Plus I had a realization that I was neglecting my machine. Here is what I dealt with this week.

Problem #1 - As you well know, I am currently without a design wall.  Which means laying things out on my full size bed. Which works okay for throw size quilts but not at all for anything larger.  Another problem that arises is the fact that my husband and I also sleep in this bed. Since I work full time, most of my sewing is done in the evening, including laying out the quilt.  I can't leave the blocks on the bed while sewing because I never finish in one evening. 

Solutions:

• Before laying the quilt out, put a sheet, flannel backed table cloth or something similar on the bed.  Lay out the blocks and get things they way you want them.  Then you can roll up the quilt and unroll it as needed.  This would be handy if you need to stop working on the lay out and call it a night. You could sew from this if you don't mind walking back and forth to get your blocks. 

• Take a picture with your smart phone. Take one in color and one in black and white.  The black and white one will help even out the values when laying out your blocks. The color one is for reference if your blocks get moved around before you get them sewn.

• Gather up blocks by rows and clip them together. I found these little clips from Harbor Freight are very useful in all sorts of crafting but I really like them for holding rows of blocks together. I even use the different colors in order to help keep the rows straight.

• Use pins as directional markers.  On this quilt, I sewed a print square to a plain square and then laid 2-block units out in a 6 x 14 grid. I knew that I wasn't going to sew 14 rows together so as I took up each row, I flipped the bottom row onto the next one up. When I got all the blocks for those 2 rows clipped together I put a pin in the side that would be the seam.  That way I could take them to the machine and still know which side to sew on.

How do you lay out your quilts? Do you take a picture? Do you use the black and white camera technique?

Problem #2 - keeping the blocks in the right order as I sew them. I have a tendency to twist things around and /or flip them over. Then there are the little helpers I have that move things around as well. 

Solutions:

• Colored clips - Again I try to use the clips in a certain order such as blue, yellow, green, then red.  I actually try to do the same pattern every time. That helps keep the rows straight.

• Stacking blocks in order - As I picked up the rows I picked them up from left to right.  I would take the first block and set it on top of the second block. That meant the top block in the stack was the the first block in the row. 

• Pin marking - I knew that the solid squares should be in the lower left and upper right of each block. But since the print squares didn't match, I could actually end up with the prints in the wrong area. So I as I was getting ready to sew the blocks, I folded back the used a pin to mark which square would be in the lower left square. 

• Chain piecing in order - I would chain piece each block in the stack, cut them apart and press open maintaining the order. The pin marking in the lower left corner allowed me to keep the stack of blocks facing in the right direction.

How do you keep your blocks straight? What tools do you use? 

Problem #3 - Lint build up. There are all sorts of guidelines out there for how often to change needles (every 8 hours of sewing, every new project, etc) or replacing rotary blades (again every new project, when the cuts aren't clean, etc)  But how often should you clean your machine?  As I was busy sewing this week I noticed little bits of lint on my sewing ledge. I was using pre-cuts and the edges were pinked. As I was sewing, little threads from the pinked edges were catching on my sewing ledge. (It is made of masking tape therefore sticky). I got to thinking, when was the last time I cleaned the bobbin area.  After breaking a needle trying to start a new project, I took a hint from my machine and opened up the bobbin area.

 This was what I found. All sorts of fuzz all over the the bobbin area.  It was on the mechanism. It was underneath the mechanism. It was everywhere. See how furry everything looks.

Then I took the bobbin case out. It was even worse. Lint was not only built up but compacted.  That means the shuttle is not spinning as smoothly as it should.

Lastly take a look at the feed dogs. The lint between them was like felt.  That meant the feed dogs were not pulling as well as they should have been.

Solutions: Take time to clean. I use a lot of cotton fabric and it sheds lint.  Lots of lint.

• First I grabbed a soft fluffy paint brush and started collecting as much of the loose lint as I could.  
• Then I moved to the cleaning brush that came with my machine.  It used the pointy end to clean out crevices and in the small areas. 
•  Then I switched back to the soft paint brush to pick up the loose lint.  
• After that I went to a smaller and stiffer paint brush to get hard to reach areas. In the end I had a ball of lint about the size of a cherry pit.   
• Then I took the time to oil the moving joints of the machine.  Just one drop of oil in each moving point.  As I was doing this I was turning the wheel by hand to get the oil worked into the right places.  
• After oiling I ran the machine without the needled or bobbin to continue to work the oil into place. 

This morning, as I sat down to sew, the machine sounded so much smoother. I had forgotten how nicely it can purr when it is taken care of.   I am sure that as I start my next project, I will be much happier with how my machine performs.  If we want our equipment to last and preform correctly we need to take care of it.

When was the last time you cleaned your machine? What do you use to clean it?