Well, the saga with my frame has continued. We did replace one of the ratchets and also the handle bars (as they were sticking and giving me error messages) and then replaced half of a pole. Now this was situated in the dead bar so it was relatively easy to do. I have been using the frame since then but recently discovered that my deadbar is bent, i.e. when you advance your quilt and the deadbar rolls with it due to the bent it then tensions the quilt differently every time you advance. I had noticed that my quilts were more taut in the middle but did not really put two and two together until I saw it the other day when advancing a quilt standing on the side of the frame. Very peculiar! This could be very well why I continued to have problems with controlling the machine in the middle as it would create a diagonal pull.
I seem to be extraordinarily unlucky with these things. The dealer has since been out again and will replace the pole...as we discovered one of the screws that holds the two deadbar pieces together is slightly bent creating this problem. It means that I have to wait again which has been quite frustrating. I am honestly not too sure about all of this, but have promised myself that I will give it a good go before making any major decisions about the future of this frame.
I have been practising in between all of this even though it was quite hard to keep a positive attitude going.
Bought a very nice panto from Lorien Quilting called 'Ambrosia' (actually purchased through Urban Elementz as a single page digital download). So pretty, so me!
Love this and also thought that it was a bit more of a challenge as there is a tiny amount of backtracking involved, so went to work on one of the charity quilts
Not too bad...struggled a bit with the backtracking (as expected) but was pleasantly surprised with my shapes. They are not too bad at all!
It looked really quite nice and those little wobbles and hesitations are very hard to see on this busy scrap quilt.
After that I went for an exploration of an overall feather filler. There is a free workshop over at
StitchedbySusan which caught my attention. Not that difficult but also not that easy as I found out.
First attempt
Not bad but too linear and I found that I had limited control over the machine as well as forgetting where to go next. I started watching a number of Susan's YouTube videos and started to think that I was doing something not quite right. Susan's quilting looked rhythmic and even whereas mine seemed to be a tad more frantic. So next I tried the design in Manual mode.
Found that I definitely am going too fast...when stitching in Manual mode I literally had to force myself to slow down (as my stitches got too long). This was not easy at all but after a few moments of playing with the speed setting I managed quite well on a smaller scale design (except for the middle where the problem with the pole is situated). Towards the end of this piece I did a little bit of the design in stitch regulated mode again as I need to be able to make it a bit larger for the charity quilt that I have in mind for that. Not sure yet whether I will attempt this as I tend to go faster when in stitch regulated mode and some of the shapes then fly away from me...will ponder more on this. I have done a few practice pieces since then and it is a matter of either biting the bullet or coming up with a different design for that particular quilt.
Anyhow, while there I also tried attaching a binding on the frame. Had seen this on YouTube and wanted to see how difficult this would be (as I hate doing this on the small DSM). Very easy and worked really quite well even on this more sloppy attempt.
It was fast and effortless...I went around the quilt like I normally would and had no hassles. The left side demanded a bit more attention in terms of where to place my two left hands but I guess this is just a matter of getting used to it. I was impressed! I started on the side which of course I could change by starting on the horizontal on top and then going down one side first and then the other side. Might give that a go as well to see what is easier. But yes, not as fiddly as I imagined and definitely something I will do from now on.
Hopefully I will get the new poles soon and that will be it in terms of the set up!
Karin
