More Treadling with Lane

Hi, all.  Rob uploaded this three minute video this morning of me working on the treadle. 

What should I tell you about this?  I'd been working on the treadle for about 3 hours at this point so I had the rhythm down and was able to pretty much forget about what my legs were doing and focus on my arms.  I get nervous with the camera rolling and lose focus on the sewing, so I had Rob sneak up behind me.  I was listening to a book, so I was pretty much "in the zone" and didn't know he was there until I heard the beep when he turned the camera off. 

My hopping free motion foot is not adjusted right.  I didn't realize that until I saw this video last night.  It should be hopping higher, which it does when I'm using this foot on my Bernina (with a connector that lets me use short shank feet on the Bernina.)  If the foot had been hopping higher, I wouldn't have had to struggle with the roll of fabric that kept trying to form in front of the foot.  It would have passed under the foot while the foot was high and would not have formed a "hill".

If you have trouble with the throat size of your modern machine, you might consider a vintage machine.  The harp is much larger and can more easily accomodate the bulk of the quilt that needs to pass through it as you work. 

I always use a "supreme slider" on the machine bed to help the quilt slide across it.  The supreme slider is a sheet of teflon that has a slick side and a "grippy" side.  The grippy side holds to the machine bed and the quilt just glides along like butter.

There is going to be somebody that says I'm not treadling because you can't get that smooth motion with a treadle machine (there always is).  Before they can say it, I'll just head them off by saying it takes practice.  Lots of practice.  There is a lot of extra coordination involved in FMQ with a treadle and you have to build that rhythm before you can really forget your feet and focus on your hands.  In the beginning of the video, you can see my shoulders rocking with the motion of my legs and that should be proof enough that I'm actually powering the machine with them.  If you're considering FMQ on a treadle, start by piecing a quilt on it to help build up the muscle memory that lets you forget your feet.  The FMQ skills are easier to acquire on an electric machine at first, if that's what you're most familiar with and then translate to the treadle. 

That's all I can think to add to the video.  This is part of a series where I talk about feet and the stability quilting I added and how to wind a bobbin (or how not to).  The plan was to cover my thoughts on FMQ in video format and the treadle was just the tool I chose to execute those thoughts on.  It's not the focus of the video, although it is a major character.

Hope you enjoy this clip.  Now go sew because I have to go to work and I'd much rather be sewing, so you do it for me. 

Be well.  Lane