User Error

 In my former work life one of the things I did on a regular basis was provide application tech support. I'd say 98% of the time the problem was not the application but user error. I never (rarely) told the user they screwed up - I told them it was a learning opportunity or that the user guide or tutorial videos were not very clear...I wrote and produced both.

In my case, I definitely screwed up.

In preparation of quilting my Project Quilting challenge (see previous post), I cut the backing out, cut the binding out, dropped the feed dogs on the Juki, set the pressure foot pressure to zero and the stitch length to zero. I practiced a little bit of free motion quilting on a test sandwich, made a few adjustments to the tension and was ready to go.

I had planned on doing a little bit of echo quilting and nothing more.

First issue: The fused tips of my applique piece were started to lift up. No problem, I switched to some raw edge applique. I suck at raw edge applique.

Second issue: After getting about 2/3's of the quilting done I couldn't move the sandwich. ??  Somehow, I had gotten the binding stuck under the quilt (I originally thought I'd flipped a piece of the back under the quilt). I had caught the raw edge of the binding and jammed it into the throat plate. I had to cut a hole in the binding, then dig out the fabric and thread from the throat plate. Okay, I'm done quilting.

Third issue: In order to sew on the binding, I set the pressure foot pressure back to normal, raised the feed dog and I replaced the free motion foot with the walking foot. Got distracted by something, who knows what it was it is easily done, put the needle down into the quilt - WHAM! Broke the needle on the unattached walking foot. Replaced the needle and very securely attached the walking foot.

Fourth issue: Again, put the needle down into the quilt and pressed the foot pedal to start attaching the binding...didn't move, thread jammed up in the throat plate. ?? Cleaned everything out and tried again. Same thing. Checked the machine - feed dog are working correctly. Checked the walking foot - looks okay, re-attached it. Tried it again, same thing. 

After adding more money to the cuss jar, I moved over to the Baby Lock. I don't have a working walking foot for it (replacements are $135 - ouch!). So I very carefully sewed the binding to the front of the quilt, and even more careful stitched in the ditch on the front to attach the backside of the binding. Might of missed a few spots.

Here is the back of the quilt.

Yes, I caught the selvage edge. No, I didn't cut it out as with my luck that night I would have probably cut a hole in the back. Yes, I forgot to change the bobbin thread to black. 

Luckily the front looked good, so I wrote my post and linked it up to the Project Quilting website.

About two hours after I posted and linked my finished project it dawned on me...stitch length! I forgot to reset the stitch length from zero to two! I definitely screwed up.