Improving my sewing machine

janome-threadSince I’ve been talking about problem-solving…

Last month I was reading the Superior Threads blog about the difference between stacked thread (the threads on the spool are parallel to each other) and cross-wound thread (typically on cones, the threads cross at angles to each other). They were saying that cross-wound thread should feed off the top and spools that are stack-wound should wind off the side. If the thread is fed through the machine incorrectly, the thread can over-twist and create problems. Hmmm…maybe that is why I’ve been having thread breakage and knotting when I’ve been machine quilting.

With my Janome, I should position a cross-wound cone a vertical spindle and a stacked spool should be placed on a horizontal spindle. Unfortunately, I do not have a horizontal spindle on my machine. I do have a wire thread guide that accommodates two different threads. To solve my little problem, I simply fed a long rubber band through my spool and hung it from the two wire thread guides. I haven’t had a single thread break or knot while machine quilting since I did this simple thing.

Ecolux switch
Mounting an ecolux switch on my sewing machine
There’s one other thing I did to my machine. Back in October 2012, I installed a Ecolux Lighting LED strip. It’s one of the best improvements I’ve made to my machine, but for all this time, the on/off switch just sat on the table next to my machine. Since I got my new sewing table, now there is no table to put the switch on, so I had to figure out something else. A light bulb finally went off and I attached the switch to my machine with a Command Strip. I positioned it right next to my machine’s on/off switch so I can turn both on or off at the same time. Simple, convenient, and efficient. Why did it take so long to figure that out?