Winners Announced; Sharing the Coupon Love!; Swaps? ... Machine Madness...Grr
7:00:00 AMGood morning, all! How's everyone's Saturdays going so far?
Machine Madness
I've had a bit of a rough week - both with respect to my neck (ouch!) and my machine. Grr.
My Singer 9960 decided to start majorly skipping stitches in the homestretch of trying to finish my sister in law's baby quilt. I ripped the casings off of the machine, checked for jammed threads in tension discs (and anywhere else for that matter), cleaned it out, cleaned out the bobbin assembly, changed the needle, changed the bobbin, changed the TOP thread. I basically did everything I could think of to fix the problem - I ended up spending 3 hours on Tuesday morning messing around with it before I figured it must be the worst:
the timing.
Bugger!
In the meantime, time is...quilting...so I pulled out my 1978 Brother Pacesetter (the one I pixelated!) and fired her up. Now I wasn't sure it would work - it was submerged in water last year when our basement flooded, and I never had the heart to open her up to see if she was okay :( I took all of the casing off and oiled and cleaned it really well. Then I plugged it in and hoped for the best.
It ran like it was new off the factory line circa 1978. BOO YA.
I finished topstitching the quilt on it on Wednesday morning - but I still had to deal with the brand new (okay, it's 2+ years old, but still...) Singer.
Fewf!
Uh oh. Sounds expensive.
Nope.
My darning foot's spring mechanism needed oiled. WHUT?! You have to oil PRESSER FEET?!
hahaha. It makes sense. Apparently any moving parts on a presser foot (like in a darning or walking foot, for instance) may need a bit of machine oil once in a while to keep them working correctly - to keep them from skipping stitches. He said if the base of the foot doesn't make full contact as the needle penetrates the fabric to compress it (even if it is a minor compression) the top thread won't be able to scoop the bobbin thread in the assembly and you'll get skipped stitches.
Well. I learned something new.
So!
I managed to finish the binding on the baby quilt yesterday - watch out for a TGIFF post on that project, to come.
I will also go through at some point and post all of the pics of the goodies I made heading my sister in law's way for her baby shower. I had a lot of fun - but the box going to her is HUGE. I fear for our postage bill from Chicago - Vancouver. Eep.
I also have a "new" machine...and if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen it... (@sewathomemummy)....if you don't - I'll be posting about that soon too :D
(maybe I should have another "Name my Machine" contest, lol!)
Swaps
I'm considering hosting another swap here at the end of the summer or in the fall (or maybe even both - do one in August and then another, separate one in October, maybe Christmas themed). It won't be a fabric swap this time, I'm thinking made items - like pouches, pin cushions, machine covers, ornaments, etc. I may very well post a poll, and see what my readers might be most interested in participating in. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please, leave a comment!
Winners Announced
Did you scroll down straight to this part? LOL! Okay, so the winners of one Thread Stem
(this super fantastical gadget which allows you to use a cone on any home machine) are:
Winners, I have contacted you through the email addresses attached to your Blogger accounts.
If you'd like to learn more about the thread stem, click {here} to go to my post about it. It costs under $4, and in the post I do a cost comparison between spools vs. cones - believe me, you'll want to buy cones after this.
Also, if you're interested, I created a poll on Massdrop for major cone brands - if we get enough votes, they'll run the deal at a deep discount, and we'll get our cones for much less than MRSP. Click {here} to head over and vote if you get a chance! (They also have other Aurifil polls on, including ones for 12wt and for Designer's 50wt boxes (like "Simplify", "Binding Box", "Simply Color", etc.!)
Sharing the Coupon Love:
Are you still with me?
I feel like I'm writing a novella today. This is what I get for taking 2 days off.
Here are the super-skookum (that's a technical term) deals I've come across in my inbox this week from some of my sponsors/affiliates. Please feel free to add any of your own to the comments below - let's share the coupon love!
I order a lot of my presser feet and bobbins, etc., through them, and I've heard that they have really excellent service with respect to machine purchases, too (from what other bloggers have said online). I see they are having a sale on thread and needles - I'm considering making a purchase of machine needles - I really need to change mine more often! They say after every 6 hours of sewing you should switch out.
Anywho!
Here's the code: 2014SMDW
Mad About Patchwork
Pam's having a June sale - $10 /yard for Bark + Branch and Mad Mend (both Cloud 9 organics). Save up to 40% on selected bolts ... new additions include Acacia from Tula Pink, Hand Drawn Garden from Anna Maria Horner and Florence from Denyse Schmidt. She's also got a Kona Stash Builder on sale - save 10% on Flame spectrum bundles and yardage in June.
I have one of their "Fleece" Rotary Cutters - it's not just for fleece - it'll cut anything, including quilting cotton, and it's awesome. I love the retractable blade and the safety lock on it - it's got a cushioned grip and the guard button is easy to use (important for me since I have arthritis in my thumbs). I've literally dropped this cutter on my tile basement floor with the guard in place and the blade wasn't damaged at all (which I can't say for any of my yellow & black rotary cutters I've dropped... for some reason, I tend to set my cutters down on top of my rulers and then pick my ruler up only to flip the rotary to the floor. Ya. Last time this happened I had changed my blade 10 minutes prior. Grr.) Anywho. All this to say I love it, and I use it all of the time. And it's on sale right now, with free shipping in the US.
(and FYI - it takes standard 45mm blades, any brand I've tried fits it - June Tailor, Olfa, Cutting Edge, Fiskars, Clover, etc.)
They have a bunch of other things on sale in their online store, definitely spend some time checking it out.
Okay! That's all I've got for you today. Good on 'ya if you made it this far. Happy Saturday!
11 comments
Glad both of your machines are working!! The 70s one is so cool!!
ReplyDeleteNuttin worse than machines that won't work expect maybe being out of wine and the am new don't work! I would be up for a Chritmas item swap.
ReplyDeleteThe iPad spell check makes me look like I am drinking! LOL
ReplyDeleteHi Erin. Thanks for all your info. I actually learned something new today. Now, I am going to go get my oil so I can use it on my feet. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteSo good to know it was a simple, and cheap, fix for your machine. I'd be interested in a swap, especially something like an ornament swap.
ReplyDeletewho would have guessed feet need oil! You must have been mightily relieved that that was all that was wrong. I checked out my old new home the other day, that goes back to late 80`s and will get a walking foot for it as the bernina needs a service, having had it 21 years and never been serviced before. decided to give her a name, Heidi seeing as she was made in Switzerland. Good to read that the parcel will soon be on its way to your SIL
ReplyDeleteJust a little FYI. Before you head to the post office to send your gift check UPS. When I sent to Canada they were quite a bit less expensive.
ReplyDeleteCo-incidently I have just spent time servicing a Brother just a few years newer than your' s. My SIL was throwing it out! It's running perfectly and now I am finding hard to get another home for it.
ReplyDeleteOff now to oil my feet! thanks for the heads up.
Jo
Oh, and congrats to the lucky winners.
Erin you might want to check out Wawak Sewing Supplies for their machine needles. Their prices are cheaper than SMP. http://www.wawak.com/products/category.cfm/cid/698/Home-Machine-Needles/
ReplyDeleteI say yes on the swap. I am just finishing one up and am already ready to do another :) My favorites are mini quilts :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to do a swap, pincushions, thread catchers, pouch's, mini quilts... although personally I need about 6 to 8 weeks, I know why swaps normally have a shorter timeline but I often have other commitments I can't move to work around. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI ♥ to hear from you!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment or for asking me a question. Rather email me? Reach out at sewathomemummy@gmail.com.
I like to email everyone back when they've commented - so if you're a no-reply blogger, make sure to leave your email address in your comment so I can share the love back atcha!