Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Machine Troubles!

Occasionally these big quilting machines get out of sync-after all we are sewing at very high speeds, moving the machine around in all directions over multiple layers of fabric, batting etc, and this can tend to put them out. Sometimes there seems no obvious reason-mostly for me there is no one thing I can point to that may have caused the revolt and such has been the case the past few days.
I finished a quilt, took a day or so break then came back and loaded another one and lo and behold Miss Ellie was in a snit!
Many long arm quilters name their machines, we spend a lot of time with them and many quilters depend on their machines for a living so the machine may become like a trusted friend. I did not bother to name my first long arm but I decided to name the second, and rather unimaginatively I named it Ellie, simply because it is an A-1 Elite!
I have been tinkering around with the machine for three days, trying all the usual tricks of the trade from bobbin and thread changes to re-timing and calibration.
Thankfully I seem to have resolved most of the issue and was confident enough to begin another quilt this evening, however I would still like to fine tune a little more so tomorrow I will check in with the very knowledgeable and helpful tech at the A-1 factory.
For now at least we are operational and Ellie and I are friends again, a huge relief and with any luck I will have another finish to post with pics tomorrow.
Our little Button dog has been a bit under the weather and we made a visit to the vet Saturday, not her favorite place she always seems to get stuck and screams like a little banshee but no stick this time only some meds. to treat her colitis. She seems to be feeling better but not as quickly as I would like, so we may check in with the vet again tomorrow, don't we hate to see our furry friends ill? Meantime she is enjoying poached chicken and rice instead of her usual Evo diet and she is very partial to chicken!

5 comments:

GardenOfDaisies said...

Sorry you are having machine troubles! Bummer! And sorry your little doggie is not well. Hope she feels much better very soon!

Heather said...

hope your dog is doing better today. It's so sad when they are sick and they can't talk to us and tell us whats wrong. My dog is a golden lab and as long as the vet keeps giving him little treats, he's fine about visiting her.

Miri said...

Glad your machine is up and running again...hope the dog follows suit soon (mmm, poached chicken and rice sounds pretty good to me too!)

Cheryl Willis said...

it is always something hiding on mine, that when I find it, I get annoyed I didn't think to look there sooner. Now I have a routine of where I do my pre-trip, my machine is so old that I don't think I could start over with a new one. cw

Ruby said...

Glad you are getting your machine troubles straighten out. Sorry to hear Button is not well. Hope she feels better soon. ENJOY that chicken, Button,dear!! :)