Anyone Help?

I'm still having problems but it seems to be quite random can anyone help or advise? I'm getting really upset now, I just want to get stuck in to catching up after being without machine for so long but it's one problem after another.

This is the back of my stitching. I'm now seemingly having really random tension problems. I go along nicely for a while, then all of a sudden without me changing anything the tension messes up again.
I've started several samples and they're all the same. I've tried once again changing the tension settings, I've changed top thread, bobbin thread, needle but nothing seems to be working I still get these random changes.

Any help/suggestions gratefully received I feel like throwing in the towel right now!!

Party is over

Last night I sat down to get stitching on my 'Taking like for a walk' sample, and would anything go right? No. I don't think it helped that I'd had a long and stressful day at work so didn't really have the patience I usually have.

This is the back of my work.......
..... check out all these tension problems. I just had to give up.

However I jumped back on the machine for 5 minutes this morning and cross fingers managed to get it sorted just like that. So I'm ready to get my butt out from in front of the computer and go stick it in front of Jemimah instead. Wish me luck ........

Party time

Jemimah is back! I'm so excited to have her again. I thought that Beatrice might be a bit jealous as she is likely to take a back seat in my sewing exploits now, but she is being the perfect lady about the whole thing and decided to throw Jemimah a welcome home party complete with balloons :)

lines, lines, and more lines

I've been making a few random notes as thoughts pop in to my head about 'line'I've also made a start on the first exercise of chapter eight......... the marks have been made on paper so it's now time to put them in to stitch.I'm also loving these random, spikey, colourful lines in this close up picture of a thistle flower that I took while out on a wander in my lunch break yesterday.

BREAKING NEWS - All going well Jemimah should be coming home tomorrow :)

Chapter Eight Begins

Am just starting to have a look at the work for module one, chapter eight and it's all about line.

Haven't gotten very far yet, but am having fun revisiting some of the 'line' images that I collected in my book back at the beginning of the module.

Goodbye Chapter Seven

After a busy weekend with family I finally got some time this evening to get this final chapter seven sample stitched up. And boy am I happy to see the back of this one.Right up until the end I kept having problems with tension and thread breakage even though I thought I'd cracked the settings. Still it's done now. I just have to get it all written up and I'll be ready to start on chapter 8.

Apart from this last sample I've really enjoyed this first foray into free motion.

I won't be doing a formal submission post yet as I need to go back and do the work for chapter 6 in my sketchbook before I can put these samples and notes in. I left a message with the repairs shop today to find out what is going on with Jemimah, so hopefully I'll have news soon.

Eureka

I had a really good play around on my machine last night and finally I think I got to the eureka moment and have figured out a way to get past the problems I was having with the free machine zig zag.

First up I switched on to a new piece of fabric and put a heavier stabilizer behind. Janet suggest pelmet vilene but as I didn't have any of that I went for a bit of TimTex that I had around for postcard making.This did seem to help and I certainly didn't get as much puckering and pulling but I was still having problems when stitching the big razzle dazzle cross down the middle, I couldn't seem to get the tension right and still had some thread breaks. So I switched out the thread and changed the stitch size and the second set of stitching across the bottom came out like a dream.

I then had a few more problems when I switched thread and stitch setting again for the lettering I started at the top. Anyway to cut a long story short after a process of elimination I figured that Beatrice can only handle the free machining on one of her zig zag settings.
Just out of interest I went back to the first sample with the nappy liner stabiliser and stitched out a few letters, and there is a lot less puckering now I've got the stitch setting right.
These two pieces will go in my sketch book as they are, but now I'm going to start a third which will hopefully be my final sample. My original idea for this was to use only threads in red and orange shades to provide a contrast to the blue and greens in the backing fabric. But now that I have figured that I can only use one stitch width I think I am going to make the stitching a rainbow of colours to add interest to the piece that way. Lets hope I really have got to the bottom of the problems and the next piece works!