Bernina 2

Bernina 2

Sorry I did not post yesterday as promised. Two, very charming gentlemen from India came to the island on business. The person they came to see was off island, so we were asked to entertain them and show them round the island. It was a beautiful, calm day, so they saw the island at its best. A really enjoyable day, but I was tired by night time.

Back to the Bernina. I have had lots of tension problems with this Bernina, with the top thread showing through to the back, or vice versa with the bobbin thread. I was quite concerned, as I wanted to quilt with the straight and fancy stitches and did not want intrusive stitches showing on either side. I bought a straight stitch plate, a variety of threads, an extra bobbin case to fiddle with the tension and started the trials.

I have sewn for years, and I always keep a note of my samples, along with how I have made the articles, threads and even some personal notes on family life! I decided, that even although I had already made two lap quilts, bags, aprons, pencil rolls etc on the machine, that I would start at the beginning again. I cut out two pieces of material, seamed them together, turned them inside out and started recording the stitches on the machine. (see photo). When I am playing, I always record my samples in the same way - Stitch No., (Top)Tension, Stitch Length, St. Width, Foot No. and record threads used, problems etc. I did not deviate in any way from the default for the stitches, but some of the stitches do need the Stitch Length to be played with. That is for another day. When I have finished these stitches, I will be able to pick out with ease particular stitches for projects and any variations needed.

I also play with certain threads and stitches, make little samples and take notes for future reference. (see photo). When I finish an article, I take a photo and again make some notes. The other photo is a needle case I made for my tatting needles. These photos were put in another notebook, but will now be amalgamated into a loose-leaf notebook. I will now have a future reference for everything I have tried on the machine at hand, and hopefully this will help my sewing. Sorry about the terrible layout of the photos. Blogspot would not allow me to put the pictures within the post. It has also changed the order of the photos. I had them numbered, but had to edit the contents after I posted! Something else to learn!

Hope this shows you how I work.

tich from sunny Orkney

Bernina Aurora 440QE

I was delighted when my husband bought me a Bernina sewing machine. My Pfaff was twenty years old. It was still sewing great, but I always yearned for a Bernina. I had heard so much about them, how great they were, how well they sewed.

I could not get my new machine to sew! I would turn it on, it would sew a few stitches and then stop dead. I would pump the foot control, it would do a few more stitches and then stop again. I got onto the dealer, and the assistant said the machine was too cold. This was a severe blow, as my husband had converted a byre into a very modern studio for me. I did check the manual, and it did say the machine did not like cold (neither do I!), so I tried running the heater for one hour before I sewed, for two hours, all night, all day and night, but eventually the machine gave up an error message 'STOP', which the dealer had never seen, and refused to sew another stitch. I got a new machine from Bernina.

The new machine sews. Do I like it? The jury is still out on that. I have had a lot of problems with tension, and I definitely do not like the BSR. I will show you tomorrow what I am doing to get more comfortable with the machine.

Till then, enjoy what is left of the weekend.

tich