Needles

It's a new week. We were supposed to be leaving for Edmonton on Wednesday to be a vendor in Quilt Canada. While I was excited to attend this show, I am not too sad that it was cancelled, as it means I will be home with my family on my Birthday later this week.

Instead of being in Edmonton for a show, we are going to do our own mini market here in Coaldale. This takes place Thursday and Friday. Thursday is nearly sold out but Friday still has some spots available if you wanted to attend. 

Quilt Coaldale Sign Up

Today I want to share with you the importance of changing your needle. Your needle may be the cause of breaking threads and skipped or uneven stitches. They can also damage your fabrics, so it is important to change them often.

 

Take a second and think back to the last time you changed the needle in your sewing machine. Was it so long ago you can't remember, last time you started a new project, just the other day? 

So how often should you be changing your needle?

The rule of thumb that I always heard was new project new needle. However if you tend to work on more than one project at once, it can be a difficult rule to follow. 

The other rule I have heard often is after 8 hours of sewing. 

I change my needle every time my bobbin runs out, I do have really large bobbins in my sewing machine, but it is a rule that works well for me. I have to unthread my needle to wind a new bobbin anyways, so I just change out the needle quick, and clean and oil my machine while the bobbin winds. This works well for me because it is consistent and there is no forgetting or guessing about it. No keeping track of which project I was on when I last changed my needle, or how many hours I have sewn with it. 

Now there are a wide variety of needle types and sizes to choose from so which one should you be using. 

If you click on the Needle Guide below it will take to you a chart from Schmetz listing the different types of needles and what they are used for. We carry Schmetz needles in the shop and have always had very good results in quality with them in all our various brands of machines. 

 

NEEDLE GUIDE

I use a Chrome Microtex Needle in 80/12 for almost all my sewing, if I am sewing with Batiks or Art Gallery Fabrics I use the same needle but in a 70/10 size. 

The 70/10 has a smaller blade and so is ale to puncture through the tighter weaves even easier. 

If you are curious about anything else concerning needles, I encourage you to check out the link to Schmetz below as it is very informative. 

Schmetz Needles

Have a great week, there will be no blog post Thursday.

Kayla