Today I felt like a bit of FMQ and just did a bit of a practice of a design that I might use on the Whole Cloth quilt. Since I have acquired the new machine, I have been using the new Dynamic FMQ foot. I have finished two quilts with that foot in an overall design...no thread issues, breakages or similar.
Well, today I put on my Springloaded foot to sew some feathers...I thought that this would be the better foot for that as I was going to sew reasonably slow. Could not believe it...had thread breakage after thread breakage, issues with the formation of the stitch, and skipped stitches.
Went through the process of trying to eliminate what the problem was...cleaned the machine about three times (had a lot of fluff in the bobbin area), re-threaded countlesss times, changed the needle several times, changed the thread...to no avail, it kept on happening...even took the shank off and re-attached it as I had recently taken that off for some echo quilting.
Given that I had the same issue the other day with the Sensormatic foot, I began to think that this was no coincidence...something has changed with the new machine and I obviously have not cottoned on exactly what it is and how to adjust my settings. I know they put a new box feed system into this machine and while I am no expert I would think the feed system could not cause these issues as I am FMQ. Looked on top...they have inserted a kind of black rubber casing over the take up lever where the thread runs through...could that be it, creating maybe addtional pull?? I spent most of the day experimenting with this...cleaning the machine, cursing...
In the end I put the Dynamic FMQ foot on again and had absolutely no issues whatsoever...this confirmed to me that I was not getting something right with the setting, i.e. the way I had set up my Pfaff 4.0 did not produce the same result in the Pfaff 4.2. Went back to the Springloaded foot and adjusted the pivot setting to -1...after all this, that did the trick. Can you believe it? Maybe something in the internal setting has changed a bit ...would love to know actually.
So, have not that much to show for my efforts today, other than the practice of my stitching. This is a design from Kim Bradley that she showed in a workshop I attended last year. Hers, of course, looks ten times better...somehow I am not quite there yet with the design. It is supposed to go into my inner border. This design is stitched from the bottom up
Well this is the last day of my leave...off to work again tomorrow...
Karin
Oh dear Karin I hope I haven't jinxed you with all my questions!! It just goes to show that each sewing machine has her own personality and what works for one may not work for another. Thank you for all your help I will let you know when I get my new machine. Happy sewing, Wendy Ryan
ReplyDeleteI find every machine is quirky and has issues! It seems every time you put in a new bobbin, anything can happen. Maybe it's the price we pay for not hand quilting!! I think you'll figure out just what works with your machine. I'll have to say, your quilting looks beautiful! The machine certainly didn't take away any of your talent!!
ReplyDeleteThe practice quilting still looks fantastic despite the issues you had with the machine and foot. I particularly like the flowing effect of the pattern on the left.
ReplyDeleteHave read your post with much interest since I do experience a lot of trouble FMQ with my PFAFF 4.2... Have had in for service recently and got it back today..so now I can continue to test again...
ReplyDeleteHave found your writing about the dynamic spring foot very interesting...and sure would like to try that one out...I hope you can provide me with information about that one...is it the old one or is it the new one created for the Creation PFAFF...
You can't know how happy I am to find someone that prizes this lovely machine for FMQ... And this is so interesting that I really would love to have more blogposts about all this!!! Amen...:0))) long to hear from you...
I thought I was the only one with FMQ problems with my Pfaff 4.2. Thank you so much for sharing your issues with it. Now maybe I won't use my machine as a very expensive doorstop. Rather, I'll head out to my Pfaff dealer and see if they carry a dynamic FMQ foot.
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