treadle woes, and a fix!

I have been happily sewing away on my treadle since returning from the TOGA last month.

 I finished piecing my strawberry coins quilt and then loaded it onto my quilter. After finishing the quilting I was ready to sew on the binding... but my treadle had other ideas   :(

For some reason the thread was not being picked up to form a proper stitch and I kept getting "birdnests" on the back of my quilt.

The thread on the right is the first loop that is supposed to pull up to form a stitch.  The middle thread is the bobbin thread.  The thread on the right is the next loop coming to form the next stitch.

I did some investigating and found that periodically a loop would not be picked up to form a stitch... then the second loop would come by and grab that loop, form a stitch and form the "birdsnest" with the first loop.  I figured out what was wrong, but had no idea why it was happening.

I logged onto the internet and the facebook  TreadleQuilters group and posted about my problem asking for help.   I had many suggestions.... 

Rethread the machine properly... I unthreaded and rethreaded being extra careful to make sure I didn't miss a step

Change the needle.... I first had to search and find all the different needles I had in stock and then needed a lesson on needle types and sizes before finding the correct one.

Clean the tension disks...I folded and ran a dollar bill between the disks to clear out any potential lint or stray threads.

Adjust the tension...  I turned the knob left, I turned the knob right... but nothing worked.  The stitches would not form propperly!

I was getting totally frustrated!   

Then the group moderator logged on and suggested that I clean the feed-dog area.

So I took off the needle plate, brushed out the little bit of lint that was in there.  And for good measure I loosened the belt, tipped the head back and brushed out a few specs of lint from the the underside also.  And while I was there, I oiled all the moving parts too!  I put everything back together and...

HALLELUJIA!  she was sewing properly again!  It is amazing that a little speck of lint... no bigger than a pin head, could cause so much trouble!

So now my binding is sewed on and I will finish the handstitching on it while watching tv this weekend.

Thank goodness for the internet!  I don't know how we survived without it!