Poor Gussie Fay!!

Poor Gussie Fay (my Gammill Classic +)… she’s sick.  Actually, she’s BEEN sick for a long time now… not REALLY sick, just a little sick.  Think of it as the longarm equivalent of a sinus condition… every now and then she leaves a bit of “thread snot” on the back of the quilt.  (Now if you don’t know what “thread snot” is, you haven’t been reading Suzanne Earley’s blog, and you really should… it’s a fun blog! )

Here’s a quick definition.  (Well, really, a NOT-SO-QUICK definition, because I get wordy.  Forgive me… that’s the elementary teacher in me coming out!)

… thread snot is a little wad of thread that is caused by the thread getting caught somewhere in the lower unit of the machine as the top thread goes around the bobbin to pick up the bobbin thread.  It can big a big blob or a tiny dribble, but it is ugly just the same, and NOT something you want on the back of your quilt! 

For the most part Gussie Fay has been leaving small blobs of thread snot for about a year now.  This means you have to carefully inspect every inch of the back of the quilt, untangle the little thread knots, go to the front of the quilt, pull up the extra thread with a tiny crochet needle, and then work the fullness back into other stitches… it takes a while!  I have wrestled with this in a big way, making every adjustment that can be made to a longarm with little improvement.

(Side note:  This is my PRACTICE piece I am showing… I do NOT quilt like this on customer quilts!)

I will put on a practice piece of quilt, adjust, test… no snot…. YAH!!  But on the next quilt I do, there it is again… that offensive thread snot.  It can make a gal want to say very unkind things to her best mechanical friend!!  I’ve taken her to Texas for adjustment… still have snot.  So yesterday I bit the bullet and made a flying trip to Vicksburg, MS.  (And while I was there I got a very good demo on the Statler Stitcher from Kay.  That computerization is AWESOME!)

Mark at Stitch ‘N Frame tried EVERYING in his mechanical bag of tricks, but poor Gussie Fay was determined to keep snotting on the quilt.  SO… he kept her.

This is my first time to be separated from Gussie Fay.  It is almost like the feeling you get the first time your child goes to a sleep-over… you are constantly wondering what they are doing, how things are going.  I think, “I should go work on blah blah blah.  OH WAIT… no Gussie Fay.”

So today I will sink myself into housework to distract myself from her absence, and Gussie Fay will come home to a cleaner, more organized quilt studio.  And while I am at it I think I will venture into a few other rooms and do some things I haven’t had time to do because… I was busy working on Gussie Fay, who was busy snotting on quilts.

Get well quick, Gussie Fay.  Momma misses you!