Something fun and easy

It was a very nice Mother’s Day weekend around here.  We took our friend LD to lunch and I had a nice long chat with my Mom last night.  We had bee on Saturday.  Rob and I are making a sewing machine cabinet for the National Two-Spool machine (pictures later) and we just had fun. 

I am burned out on quilting the silk quilt right now, so gave myself the weekend not to worry about it and I put together this little Linus quilt. 

Those are some of the 9 patches I made to practice with the Elna and then I picked a sashing, and let it carry the show.  The blue cornerstones, and green and orange borders are colors pulled from the sashing.  It’s a very fun quilt and one I’m proud to give away. 

I think I’m going to try to quilt it on the Elna.

Bee members saw me play with this machine on Saturday.  I had everything working great, but the bobbin was being a pain in the butt.  The thread kept popping out of the tension.  I’d sew a bit, then I’d have to load the bobbin again.  I kept trying things. 

Near the end of bee, I found a bobbin.  Random bobbin on the table.  Asked if anyone recognized it.  Class 15 as opposed to the class 15J, which is a wider bobbin with the same diameter.  The only thing I can assume is that it came in that attachments box that I got in the mail last week and fell out onto the table while I was fishing around for a screwdriver.

I got home and dropped a class 15 bobbin in and I have not had a problem with the tension popping out again.  The machine came with a 15J and I assumed that’s what fit.  And, we all know what happens when I assume. 

Anyway, it solved the presser foot pressure problem, too.  Apparently, that wider bobbin was pushing the bobbin cover up against the foot.  I was immediately able to adjust the presser foot pressure to the normal setting for the machine.  I’m going to buy some official Elna bobbins, just to see if they are maybe a bit wider than the 15 and therefore easier to remove from the bobbin case.  Oh, and the class 15 bobbin also winds on the bobbin winder.  The class 15J was just a tiny bit too big and the spindle spun inside of the bobbin, but the bobbin didn’t spin to wind on thread.  The class 15 does spin and winds a lovely bobbin.  So now, every function of the machine is in good working order.

If I knew anything about all this, I’d be dangerous.

I am so tempted to write the lady I bought the machine from to ask why she sold it.  I’ll bet my thread collection that it was because she couldn’t get it to sew and that’s why she let it go cheap.  There were really only about 4 problems with the machine and once all four were taken care of…well, I’m even more sure I got a bargain.

Everybody have a great Monday.  Lane