Teaching the two spool to free motion quilt

I know.  It’s really about teaching me to quilt on a new machine, but it sounds better when I say I’m teaching the machine something, right?  Because I know everything.  Right?

First, I had to figure out how to get the machine to stitch.  Here is the post where I talked about that.  And, my thoughts were confirmed by reader, Cari. 

Now that it is making stitches, it was time to try a project. 


I had this little quilt, ready to go.  It’s maybe 12x9”, so the perfect size. 

When I bought a motor for the machine, I wasn’t sure this was going to work out, so I didn’t want to spend a lot.  I bought a relatively cheap AlphaSew motor.  The motor itself is fine.  But, the foot control had two speeds, stop and flying fast.  I didn’t have much direction control because the machine was going so fast.  Tiny mistakes got big before my mind realized it was a mistake and could stop.  It was so fast that the thread was breaking from the friction of sewing that fast.  And, the controller got hot.  I mean really hot.  In a little FMQ work this morning, it got too hot for me to set my bare foot on it. 

That’s not going to work, so this morning, I pulled that controller off (and threw it away) and put a spare controller I had on.  That gave me much better speed control.  And, it doesn’t seem to be getting hot, tho I confess that I didn’t get to sew long this morning, after that work was done. 



So, problems one and two are solved…time for problem three.  Tension.  And, if you’ve ever set the tension on a machine, you know that can be tedious.  I’m sure a professional can do it in 90 seconds flat.  But, for me, it takes time.  I’m going to pick out the feathers that I started in this  little quilt because I can do better.  And, I’ll pull out a throw away to work on the tension.  I keep lots of throw aways, just for that.  A throw away is a sandwich made from two pieces of ugly fabric and a batting scrap.  They’re great for trying a new pattern before you work on the actual quilt and they’re great for practice and warm up.  And, I never throw one away…I just keep quilting on it in different colors of thread.

Everybody have a great Friday.  If I can set the tension on the two spool, I plan to quilt the baby quilt on it.  Rob is going to video that, so there will be a movie.  Yay!!

Lane