Since I got my Singer 201 from Santa I've been itching to try it out. I ordered some parts for it because I only got the basic machine in the auction {Santa bought it on eBay:)}. I needed a darning foot and I also bought a 1/4 inch patchwork foot just in case :)
I discovered Leah Day's educating videos about free motion quilting about 2 months ago, but by then She was at the end of Her 365 filler designs lessons. Fortunately for me She decided to start over this year with Her Free Motion Quilting project. If you're interested, you can find it here: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/p/free-motion-quilt-along.html
I really like her style of teaching and the way She talks. It's really relaxing. Even though I didn't start to quilt along in January as She started, I had my first try Yesterday. Here is the result for week #1 lessons:
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| This is piece #1 (the horizontal lines were sewn at the end) |
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| and piece #2 (I tried to practice the straight lines with not much success) |
I had tension problems in the beginning. Because it's a new sewing machine to me I had to read the instructions. First to lower the feed dogs I had to unscrew the bottom and move a handle to a different position to keep the feed dogs down. Then I had to adjust the tension. I tried to tighten the top tension, but it didn't seem to work. The back side of my sandwich looked like there were no stitches at all. I guess the people Santa got the machine from adjusted the bobbin tension to sew through a lot of layers. They even sent me the samples of leather belts and thick canvases to demonstrate the power of the machine (which I knew already). So I looked up how to play with the bobbin and had to adjust it. Bingo! It works beautifully now. The stitches look the same both sides and there doesn't seem to be any issues. Now I "only" will have to work on regulating my stitch length and control my curves. For that I decided to go thrift shopping Today. There are 2 of them close by. One of them had sheets for $1 and $2 in pink and white. The other one had HUGE table cloths 2 for $10, I just couldn't leave it there. I washed and dried them already, just have to iron and ready to go!
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| My future practice pieces |
I'll post some more pictures as I progress.
I had tension problems too when I first started quilting on the Singer 201. It took a bit to figure out the adjustments but when I did it was smooth sailing. It also seemed to like the Sulky embroidery thread for quilting.
ReplyDeleteYour free motion practice pieces look good! You'll be meandering in no time.
Thanks, I'm so glad I could figure it out! I've watched so many videos in the past years and I think that helped a lot. I'll try Sulky, thanks for suggesting!
ReplyDeleteHi, Any chance you could make a tutorial or video for how to set up the Singer 201 for free motion quilting? Your quilting looks beautiful, btw. Thanks!
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