Sunday, May 28, 2017

Re-falling in Love with my Bernina - Part 4

This is quite possibly the last time I may be blogging about my Bernina. At least regarding our tenuous relationship of late. Friday night I drove 1 1/2 hours to Hanover, Pennsylvania to pick up my Bernina from Danners Bernina Shoppe. I was met by Nadine, daughter of the owner, who was a wealth of information. She went over the repairs, updates to software, the hook system and showed me little things that make big differences when sewing on a Bernina. For instance, Bernina feet are purposefully designed and engineered. So, when I was trying to sew a 1/4 in seam for HST's I not only had the wrong presser foot on, I also had the wrong plate attached. The foot you should use is so similar you wouldn't really notice the difference when looking at the top. But on the bottom, the foot I was using had a groove down the center in the shape of a "V". That groove is designed to glide over satin or decorative stitches. I knew this. What I didn't know is that when sewing a straight 1/4 inch seam it makes a huge difference. And when trying to sew said seam over the plate that accomodates the 9mm stitches it is too unstable. I was instructed to put on Bernina Presser Foot 1C and change the plate to the single hole. PERFECTION! So simple? Not for this girl!

Now for the BSR. There was nothing wrong with the BSR; just the Operator. Me. When I started to free motion quilt I had a difficult time controlling the speed in which I moved. When I first started piecing I also started quilting imemdiately and was very impatient. I thought to be a good quilter you needed to also be very fast. Now, some quilters are really fast; but they've also been quilting for a while. And, some quilters are naturally at ease the moment the needle and thread pierce the fabric. My Sewister friend Nicole of Darvanalee Designs Long Arm Quilting Service in Australia is one of those people. She was a quilting prodigy. Like Mozart was to music, Nicole is to Quilt Sandwiches!

I still feel my machine is a fussy pants. But, then, so am I. So, it would seem, that we are perfectly suited for each other. The question is now answered. I have fallen back in love with my Bernina, and realized that the fault was definitely.... 50/50.

Below is a picture of sewing HST's while using a foot with a groove in it and the 9mm stitch plate. Egad! This may not be true for every machine but Bernina's feet are fussy. Fussy in good in a way because for Bernina users there is a foot for everything and everything has foot. That's a good thing. Right?



When sewing 1/4 inch seams, or any straight stitch for that matter, make sure you have your single hole stitch plate on and you are using Bernina foot 1C. The needle is adjustable to the right or the left in order to get an accurate seam, but you should then use the 9mm stitch plate. This may be fine but remember the fabric will have one less point of stability. Or you can use Foot No. 97 with seam guard on the right. In addition, you can set the Bernina up on a lock-up command so that if you try to change to a zigzag it won't let you sew until you change the plate and foot.

6 comments:

  1. Wonderful information about the Foot and plate on your machine...I will have to look into the feet and plate on my machine as have a similar problem with Half Square triangles getting the corners sucked down into the machine :) And Thank you for your kind words Nancy :) :) I appreciate them...Love and Hugs to you Sewsister xx

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    1. You are so welcome. And... thank you for all of your encouragement and teaching via FB messenger!

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  2. So happy you are back in the falling in love stage with your Bernina aka Daisy May!! Great info on the feet and plate too...gotta check my machines now!!

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    1. Right?!!! Many of our machines, (and you and I have several of the same ones) have basic feet or we can interchange with feet made by different companies. Seems wonderfully convenient. But Bernina, for better or worse, I think better, has a foot for everything and everything has a foot. LOL

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  3. I knew about the plate but Bernina has so many amazing feet and they all have a purpose that I just get over-whelmed with them all and I forget. I have downloaded the Bernina App and that helps with the name and inventory of my feet. So, somehow I need to remember what 1C is best for. Your writing is excellent...I enjoyed reading through your blog posts today.

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    1. Thank you Gabi! For reading my blog and for your compliment. You raise a very good point about Bernina feet. It is overwhelming and even though we have their App, it isn't in any order other than numerical. I'm thinking of making an alphabetized list organized by category of what you want to achieve and the foot listed next to it. We should put our heads together!

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