Please Don’t Try This at Home, or, How to Care for Your Slider
Sometimes I have a forehead-slap moment. This has been a tough week. I have many simultaneous projects/commitments and I’m trying to finish a piece for the Pacific International Quilt Festival deadline-yeah, that’s 12 days from now. So I’m petal-to-the-metal trying to get this piece done.
My plan for this piece is to create acres of this background, then lay down the design afterwards. I used this same technique on Breeze II.
This technique involves a crazy amount of thread. Of course, being The Thread Snot, I am using silk thread-oh I love this stuff! I am particularly drawn to this lovely light gray for use in my black and white series. I’m going through these 1090 yd mini cones like they were chocolate.
But I was having trouble. Of course, I should have stopped to figure it out before this happened:
See all those super big stitches? I just couldn’t figure it out. The tension was dead on, the Superior Titanium coated topstitch needle was sharp and the right size, I was using Superior’s Kimono silk-an excellent thread, my batting was wool, my fabric was high quality sateen. I was not flagging-my presser foot pressure was appropriate.
Then what could be the problem? Sometimes I was fighting just to move the quilt, as though I had no slider at all and was fighting friction. And sometimes I would be pushing the fabric and all of a sudden it would let go and I would get a huge stitch. Whaaaat??
It finally occurred to me that the problem was my slider! Sliders accumulate fiber on their bottoms and over time this will prevent the slider from sticking to the machine bed. (Sliders self-cling to your machine bed and allow you to move your quilt around with zero friction.)
The slider will begin to move around on your machine bed. Eventually you will end up stitching through it. All that is needed to prevent this is to simply run water over the back from time to time and the gunk will slide right off.
I neglected to do this and I stitched through my slider-many times. I tried to extend its life by repairing it with packing tape. Well guess what: packing tape does not slide well! I was fighting to move the quilt when it was on the repaired portion of the slider.
To make things even worse, there were so many layers of tape that there were also significant ridges. So that was why I was getting all those big stitches!
Will I go back and rip all that out? I may rip some of it out, but not all of it. What do you learn by ripping? Nothing. So I will probably take my loss, plow ahead, and do better on the next project. It’s really going to be tough to get this piece done in time for PIQF.
I’ll be linking up to Nina Marie’s Off-the-Wall-Friday tomorrow so be sure to check out all the cool links!
I have sewn through my slider too, so I have stopped using it. Can’t tell much difference. Love your quilting design.
I do hear that on occasion-that the slider does not make much difference. Of course I just know my own situation and it makes a big difference for me.
Sometimes in class I’ll lend my slider out to a student to let her try it out. Man, my stitch length suffers and it’s harder to push-I miss it! But if it’s not making much difference for you, the $32 spent on a slider could buy more fabric instead-win-win!
That is my attitude toward ripping out quilting too. It has to be really, really bad. Worse than yours is. I wasn’t thrilled with the slider either. I haven’t sewn through it, but it has doubled over and hampered my quilt moving. And that after I rinsed it. Good luck with getting your quilt finished on schedule. I always vow not to enter quilts that aren’t finished; you can imagine what vows I never keep.
Yes Claire-life is just to short for too much ripping!
I’m surprised the slider did not work for you but hey, we all have different set ups.
Now I totally LOL over “not entering unfinished quilts”. Every single year I enter my local quilt guild’s show with at least one unfinished quilt! Nothing like putting myself under pressure.
Oops. LOL!
Of course you NEVER have oops moments, LOL! I am convinced that one of my life’s responsibilities is to provide comic relief for others.
Oh, I can relate to this. I don’t know what I was thinking. Actually, a lack of thinking is likely to blame. I switched from using free-motion to straight-line stitching with the walking foot and feed dogs up, and didn’t remove the slider. It didn’t end well, so I too tried the packaging tape with no success. Cutting the hole larger was an improvement. Since my husband didn’t realize my son had my slider, rather than a piece of paper, and let him pummel it with plastic toys in his play kitchen, it’s in a bad way anyhow. Poor slider, it’s time for you to retire.
Oh that is a hysterical sequence of events Afton! Since you have a young son around you really have a lot of different things to focus on-no wonder the poor slider got abused!
Yikes, that’s a painful lesson! Don’t worry , we all have those doh! moments. Good luck getting things done!
And some of us have more than others, sigh!
Oops! I have done that more than once. So now I tape mine down with blue painter’s tape. I have not sewn through one since I started doing that about six months ago, and the tape does not interfere with the sliding ability either. I find the larger the quilt the more difference the slider makes in my quilting. If it’s a little quilt, I will likely not bother, but for anything over about 30 inches by 30 inches it is a tremendous difference.
Oh that is interesting Betty Jo-your remarks about the size. That may explain why some do not notice a difference. I realized also, I currently am doing loooooong sweeping lines and without a slider that would be impossible.
I used blue tape at one point but it became annoying to me to have to remove it each time I went to check the bobbin or put on a binding or do some other type of sewing. Lazy I guess!
If I simply could remember to keep it clean…
Yes, I think the size of the motifs you are trying to quilt is even more important than the size of your project. If you are doing stippling or pebbling or something that involves small movements, the Slider might not make a big difference, but it’s REALLY hard to do a larger movement like what you’re doing without one. It just annoys me that the little Teflon plastic thingamajig is just a rectangle with a little needle hole cut out, but it costs SO much money. It also annoys me that my slider blocks access to my stitch plate, and I find that I don’t clean out the thread bits and lint as often when the slider is on — and when I was quilting the fabric for my sewing machine cover, that resulted in clumps of lint getting sewn into my quilting stitches on the back side. Yuck! I would NOT have been happy about that if it was a regular quilt that anyone would ever see the back of!
This is very interesting, the different opinions on this slider thing. Now that would annoy me to have the thead bits on the back of the project. I do just lift it off to clean it or do something on the machine. No perfect answer I guess.
I notice that the sliders have been around for a few years and the new ones that come on the market are similarly priced. It must be expensive to make them I’m guessing.
Thank you for the good advice…..however, if I was able to FM half as well as your ‘bad??” sample…..I’d be a happy girl!!!
Mary that’s a giggle-thank you!
I did the same thing Afton did, used the slider with the walking foot. . . not my most brilliant move!! I used duct tape on the back. It worked OK. . . not great but OK. I finally bought another when I bought my new machine (actually they threw it in!! BONUS!). I have also found that it must be clean to stay put. I don’t tape mine down, too lazy ;)
As for price, they are pricey but somewhere in my reading I found a tip that people were using teflon kitchen sheets? I have never seen such a thing (not that I’ve ever looked) but it is said they are cheap and work exactly the same way. Obviously one would have to cut the hole for the needle and apparently taping them down is a must.
Oh dear, I am opinionated about this. Yes, many use teflon sheets from the kitchen. I don’t like them: they’re thin so you feel every bump of your machine bed, you must tape them on every time, untape to do anything involving the plate or bobbin.
And anything that hampers access is an issue for me. I will be less likely to clean out my bobbin area, switch from a zig zag plate to a straight stitch, or simply to be able to check under there for a variety of reasons.
But the bigger picture for me is how I feel about my tools, notions and machines. I want to use the tool made for the job. I deserve that. If I was a very casual fm quilter then I might use the kitchen sheet. But probably not.
If I am going to learn to do something new, I know I will probably need to purchase some items to do that. I also know there is some risk-I may purchase something that I don’t use or don’t like. But I have to give it my all and that includes notions, equipment, etc.
I hope this does not sound snarky-sometimes opinions written in blogs or FaceBook can sound judgemental, uppity, snarky, even tho that is not their intent. I just think I need the right tool for the job.
I quit using the Slider a while back. I always starch my backs and that is enough for me. But even before I stopped using it, it would slip and the delicate opening would rip. After I bought my Tiara, I tried the large slider, and couldn’t tell a difference with or without it. For me, if I have the weight of my quilt supported, and the back is starched, it slips and slides just right. BUT, everyone is different, every machine is different and you are so right about making sure you have the best tools for the job. I tried gardening gloves instead of Machingers, and there is a huge difference. So, I buy Machingers. That being said, I am always trying things I hear about, that is one of the reasons the internet is so great, the free exchange of ideas and information! No, you are the least bit snarky, you just know what you like! And you deserve it!
Oh those gardening gloves usually are loose and the hands slip in them, as I’m sure you noticed. I starch my backs also and this time I think I overstarched as it’s stiff! Leave it to me to over do it!
Thanks for the comments Kelly-I agree. The internet is a wonderful place to exchange ideas.
If you are doing more work on the top of all those lines, could you not put it where the lines are the biggest – if you see what I mean… I don’t have a slider, I was umming and ahhing about getting one but have managed for all these years without, a friend said, just polish your table, I haven’t had to do that even – yet.. Also I cannot wear the gloves, I know a lot of folk do, my friend bought a pair of cheap £1 gardening gloves and said they work a treat for her. I cannot bear to have my hands enclosed though. Seem to manage regardless of all these wonderful ideas… I do sometimes think it is the manufacturers ‘conning’ us into believing we need all these gizmos… just saying. :-)
Sorry I forgot to reply Janet! I think the tape is just a bad idea-ruins the whole purpose of the slider. When you are doing larger projects and especially one with long “straight” or curved lines, I think you have to have one. I do not want to quilt without mine. Everyone’s set up is different though, as are preferences.
Ther are all kinds of things to put on your hands besides gloves: Steady Betty has a thingy, I use glycerin in the summer (very inexpensive), the Grip and Stitch paddles, lay on hoops like Quilter’s Halo. Everyone has to find what works.
Thanks for you comment Janet!