In pursuit of a good stitch I have had to make some modifications to my machine. I have spent days researching how other mid arms are threaded and adjusted.The manufacturer of my machine is notorious for being unresponsive to quilters who own this machine and who cannot stitch with it.  First up has been to set the needle bar to the correct height per other machines. I loosened the screw you see behind the red circle. Then I put a dime under the foot for correct height and tightened the screw again. Over the next few days I will post explanations of other “fixes”.

I am sorry to tick off a lot of  quilters. You could be a traditional quilter or an art quilter, but if you did not quilt your own quilt, you aren’t a quilter. You are a piecer, an appliquer,  a whole cloth painter or a designer. I don’t know when it became acceptable to only do the part of a finished work you like to do, or are good at,  and then pass it around to the next person. That’s OK but it isn’t your quilt in my opinion. It is a 2 or 3 person work since you also might have paid someone else to do the binding since NOBODY likes to do the finishing.

I know the argument that a lot of artists have assistants. That isn’t the same as entering a quilt in a quilt competition and taking credit for the quilt, the whole quilt and nothing but the quilt. I think it is dishonest and it certainly is not fair to other quilters who did all the work on their entry. I even think it is dishonest for a quilt in a gallery if it is the quilting design and expertise that make the quilt. There is a saying every quilter learns when they start down this path. It isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted. It is up to you to decide if it is YOUR quilt or a collaboration.

I do all my own work. I used to be a master hand quilter. Then when rheumatoid arthritis started causing issues, I went to only heirloom machine quilting on a domestic machine. Now the disease has progressed so I have to use a mid arm . I don’t use a stitch regulator, it’s all my stitching and mistakes. It is the hand of the artist visible in every wobble and occasional non-uniform stitching. If that means I don’t win an award,  I’m OK with that because I know it is my quilt from start to finish.

I won’t take up your valuable time with the full saga of my cheap mid-arm machine. But I can tell you it is also a problem for other people who own this machine. It is sad that like me, I am pretty sure others felt it was all operator error. Now, I don’t know about them, but I have been free motion quilting for over 30 years. Yes, there is a small learning curve on a commercial machine but there should be no reason to have to start from scratch.

This machine has some built in flaws that cause every owner I have come to know the same problems. The main one is tension. A lot of thread breakage, bird nests, eyelashes and pokies. More than normal and more than even a beginner should have to put up with. Ron is learning and of course he thought it was him, not the machine. Then I did a couple of pieces with the same problems. Nope, not him.

I have completely torn the machine down once and reset timing…that thing the Mfr said should never be done. That worked for awhile until it was shipped to have handles attached. I am not afraid to disassemble a machine. It’s simple to do, it’s getting it back together that might be hard, hahaha. Actually I do it all the time with other machines.

I made up  my mind that I will fix this machine or know why it can’t be fixed. So far I have tried some of the tutorials on the Innova long arm site. The guts of my machine and the Innova are very similar. So far this has given me a passable stitch, I am showing some pictures of before and after. WARNING these are not pretty or for quilt police!  But passable isn’t good enough. I need consistent good trouble free stitching. I have some modifications in mind that I think will permanently fix this machine.

If they don’t work, I guess I will be getting out my checkbook!