Longarm Hiccups
December of 2017 I made the decision to buy a Gammill Statler longarm quilting machine and to begin offering quilting services. My business needed another income stream, and this seemed like a logical extension. It was a big investment and there was no way to know in advance if it would pay off. Scary stuff!
Thankfully, it did. In retrospect, adding longarm quilting to Stitched in Color played a pivotal roll in enabling our move to Europe in 2019. I’m so glad that we took the risk and that you responded with generous support!
I say “we” because this is one aspect of my work that I have shared with my husband. I’ve relied on him from the get go to help me master the technical aspects of the machine and for ongoing maintenance. He is so good at understanding how things work.
So, if I have an annoying problem like persistent thread breakage, he’s who I ask to check the timing on my machine. He reminds me to reverse oil the machine from time to time and sets me straight when I load the needle backwards (hides face).
Yes, there have been little uh-oh moments when my longarm has given me trouble, but this time - - -
This time I really did it.
You see, my longarm is computer guided. This means that the computer moves the sewing head over the machine, which allows me to walk away and do other work while it is running. The other week I was typing away at my desk when I heard my longarm make it’s unhappy sound. Not too worried, I walked over to the machine to find - - - that the machine had sewn over the black metal clamps that hold the quilt taught from the side.
Oh no! The project in question is not pictured here, but this photo gives you the gist. Those black clamps on the side are usually a few inches from the edge of the quilt top (which is why the backing fabric must always be oversized). I set the quilting width in the computer at the beginning of the project. This time the quilt top had gotten narrower at the bottom, and I didn’t notice. As a result my longarm had tried valiantly to quilt over the metal clamps.
That didn’t go so well.
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A Gammill Statler longarm machine is incredibly strong. It did punch holes in the metal clamps, but not without doing damage. Eventually the needle broke, the machine registered an error and stopped sewing.
After the accident, the needle would no longer move up and down. Brandon diagnosed that the needle bar was bent. We ordered a replacement needle bar from our closet Gammill dealer (in the United Kingdom) and waited patiently for it to arrive.
The part arrived last night, hooray! Brandon started repairs early this morning. Here he’s already put the new needle bar into the machine. In his hand is the old needle bar, which is no longer perfectly straight. I was shocked by how large it is! These machines are not messing around.
Well my friends, I’m glad to report that the machine is again in perfect working order. Hoorah! I have six customer quilts waiting to be quilted and two of my own. TWO! That’s never happened before, but it sure does look pretty.
My longarm machine is humming over a client quilt right now, as I type. My 12-patch quilt will get its turn tomorrow! And then - - - well, I’ll be all clear to begin another.
