Thursday Night Quilting

Well, in my last post, I eluded to going to Quilt Guild meeting Thursday night... That didn't happen.

Thursday evening, I got home from work at about 4:30 and had to run to the bank and the grocery store.  The bank is 0.7 miles from my home, the Grocery, 0.5 miles from the bank, and 0.2 miles from my home.  The entire round trip was only 1.5 miles.  I left my house at 4:45 and got back home at 6:20!

I spent 5 minutes at the bank and about 8 minutes at the grocery.  If you do the math, I averaged 1.097 MPH while actually in my car.  There were accidents at 5 of 7 intersections, there was less than 1 inch of snow on the ground and it was snowing... You would have thought I had been transplanted from OHIO where it snows EVERY winter to some land where they don't have a word for "Snow".  It was horrible.

Normally the weather wouldn't keep me home, especially such mild weather, but that little "jaunt" did have me slightly concerned about going to Guild meeting.  But I was supposed to demonstrate my method of Closing a Binding... So, I left to go to Guild meeting.  As I walked out the door, I saw that there was an accident at the end of the road that had my street blocked, so I went back into the house and decided I was going to quilt instead.

Determined to enjoy myself, I broke out my machine, some fabric, got all set up and ready to go, and then finally settled, started to feed two pieces through my machine to connect them together in that magical way we call sewing and after about 8 seconds, I realized something was horribly wrong.  My machine had no tension on top.  None.  Zero.  My brand new not even 90 day old machine!!

I was furious.  I messed with this and that, I even broke down and took out the manual!  Ladies you know that us menfolk don't open a manual unless we absolutely have to!  I am not too proud to admit that I fit that stereotype perfectly.  After going through the steps outlined there, nothing, still no tension.

So, I gave up for the evening.  I didn't get to Quilt Guild meeting, and I didn't even sew an inch.  It was a complete waste of 2 hours of my time.  I sulked and watched TV.  I thought about doing some homework, but honestly I was ticked off and wanted nothing more than to waste my time.  So, I did.

Friday I called my local repairman and we agreed on a time to meet Saturday morning to have a look at my new Quantum L-500.  (I still haven't named her... Any suggestions?)  Anyway, Steve messed with her for a few minutes, agreed she wasn't holding tension at all, and then after messing for a good 10 minutes with this and that, said, "Let me try one more thing..." and he pulled out an air hose from beneath his desk.  He plugged in a rather loud air compressor and blasted some air into the thread track and throughout the workings of the machine.

"Sometimes," he said, "lint and stuff gets caught up behind the tension wheel and forces it open.  If that's the case, this might blow out that lint and release the wheel."  Sure enough, when he put down the hose and unplugged the compressor, he threaded the machine and presto, she had tension again.

He sewed a few lines and reset the tension, and off I went... So, my first disappointment with my new machine turned out to be a result of using it so much.  I regularly clean what I can reach with a brush, but that blast of air produced quite a decent amount of dust and lint, so I guess I will be adding "Hit it with air" to my weekly cleaning routine from now on...

Now, I need to get my paper written for class tomorrow night so I can sew guilt free on Thursday!

Until Next Time,
Paul