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Feature Friday

Hello and Happy Good Friday! I’m not much of a Christian myself, but it’s nice to have Buzz home for a few days, especially after his horrendous journey home last night and the whirlwind business trip to Luxembourg this week. He’s tired, poor guy. Last night there were awful delays due to a train that had caught fire, and he was lucky to get home at 8pm. The passengers got dumped in Basingstoke without knowing whether they’d be getting a train or be shuffled onto buses, and had to hang around in the cold for quite a while, not knowing when or even how they’d get home. :s

As for me, I spent yesterday sewing everything except the stuff that’s on my to-do list. I look at the list and it’s really hard to get excited about it. I need to quilt my red & aqua QAL quilt, but I’m having a lot of trouble doing free motion quilting on my Janome Horizon 7700. The top thread keeps breaking and skipping stitches. I’ve bought the free motion bobbin holder and switched to topstitch needles, but it still happens. The end result is that when I think about needing to quilt, I get stressed out and do something else instead. Which is bloody ridiculous when you consider the machine cost me £1400. If anyone has any advice, I’d be very grateful for it.

It sounds like I’m a whingy witch, but actually I’m not, honest! I’m quite happy doing the other stuff, I just need to focus a bit on what I need to do instead of what I want to do!

Anyway, we’ve got a fantastic feature this week:

 Libby of Truly Myrtle made this box bag, and even has a tutorial if you’d like to make one of your own. Isn’t it sweet?

Have a happy Easter, and come say hi on Twitter!

P.S. Because the Google Overlords want to force the entire planet into using their crappy social application, my Google Friend Connect has been cancelled. But you can still get me in your Google Reader (or any other reader) by clicking on the Feedburner (RSS) link below. 🙂

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© J C Excell, 2012

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11 thoughts on “Feature Friday

  1. Oh that sucks about the machine! Did it come with lessons or anything from a local supplier that could give you advice? I know my tutor said that some machines were really picky about thread (although mine wasn’t)

  2. Oh no! I’d be soooo mad, too, if I had an expensive machine that didn’t want to fmq! 🙁 I hope you’re able to figure out a solution soon! I’m sorry that I don’t have any advice — my machine skips as well, even when I try to go slowly. I think it happens when I pull the fabric towards me; do you notice that your machine skips when you’re going in a certain direction?

  3. wish I could advise on the machine quilting thing. Your bed looks like mine after hubby leaves …why do all men think the blankets on the bed are for them????? My sil is the same plus he takes his half of the bed from the middle. If it were my bed I’d sharpen my elbows and start poking him in the side…. I keep a fleece blanket on my side of the bed for when I get cold and he’s laying on top of our blanket and quilt.

  4. I too have a janome, not quite as nice of one, but a janome none the less. I was having the same problem with my thread. Here are the things that I did to help with it. I tried each one by themselves and each helped a little, but all together they have helped me get my fmq under control. 1st leave the freedogs up. I know it sounds strange, but it helps with the timing. I read an article on about it on the free motion quilt project. She explains her reasoning, it made enough sense for me to try it, and I was happy with the results. Second I use a supreme slider. This helps the fabric move freely and keeps the free dogs from touching the back and interfering with my movements. The last thing I do is pop off the end of the thread, both auriful and superior threads have top parts you can just pop and then the can’t interfer with your tension. However if I am using a thread that I can’t do that with I just skip that step. Try these out and let me know.

  5. I love the suggestions from Jenniffier. I was doing FMQ on the same machine yesterday and having all kinds of trouble with the exact some issue. I talked to another friend and she said it was when she goes counterclockwise that her thread breaks and I am almost positive I have the same problem with the same motion. So you can either avoid that motion or we can all team up and write one big complaint letter to Janome!

  6. I don’t have a Janome, and I’ve only fmq’ed one quilt, but I found my machine liked quilting best when I was using a heavy duty needle. Jenniffier’s comment regarding feed dogs and timing make sense, too.

    Good luck, and I love your quilts!

  7. The other tip I have read somewhere- don’t ask me where- is to change your top tension. It may need loosening quite a long way, try a little and if it feels better, try a bit more.

    With my overlocker I kept swatches of stuff I had tried, and the result it gave and a note of the settings at the time. You could try this for your ‘normal’ machine, so you have something to refer back to.

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