What's been around...comes back...

I posted the following this morning on one of our 'group' sites and just thought I would share with others for two reasons, it doesn't make any difference who manufacturers the equipment you use, there will always be questions and as the user base increases like ABM/Innova's has and is. Those questions will come back around...safe to say again and again.  

I hadn't been on for several days, like since Friday 8/2. The latest series of posts were interesting to say the least and signs of ABM growth. Bobbins, tension, floating, and lighting are like clothing trends...if you keep stuff long enough we all know it will come back in style...as do longarm topics. If you do have the time you can search the group by topic/phrase...'thread tension' as an example and you'll find a pretty good list of recent and older posts regarding the issue that may just help with your particular problem or question. The Group is to say the least an extremely valuable asset. If there is one thing that I would add in response to all of the above mentioned topics it would be this...try everything at least once...of course like any other company ABM is obligated to support their design and engineering, rightfully so, along with that are their warnings and advice about following their suggestions and recommendations to protect your warranty. Whether you follow those recommendations or not is a decision only you can make. In our case, and I cannot relate to anything anyone else has done or is doing to satisfy their success in obtaining the best results, but in our case, it was trying everything and anything to get the quality in our longarming that we were after. We have chosen to supplement our daily use of our 22"/12' Standard Stitch Regulated Innova with industry standard bobbin cases and bobbins that aren't made in Italy aren't red and aren't aluminum. And with Michael's advice to increase the amount of 'oil' we applied between bobbin changes we have much less noise, like now it's a hum, way fewer tension problems and for us a peace of mind each and every time we load a quilt. Oh, and we took out that annoying thin little tension thing-a-ma-jig long ago...we use bobbin case and a bobbin, works exceptionally well for us. We float everything...took the middle bar leader off within the first week. Basting...yes I complained about how could someone make a 'stitch regulator' without a basting stitch. Well someone ask me what are your greatest strengths...how about improvise, adapt, overcome. We can both now baste with complete confidence, how ever many inches apart we want, smoothly and pretty much as quickly as we want...are either of us Lightning Stitch...of course not...but with a little effort and practice we conquered the 'white button' and basting a quilt is not a problem, not that time consuming any longer and has become a fluid and smooth operation of the process. In regards to lighting, well the light that ABM chose to put on our machine is top notch, again I can't speak for anyone else, it lights up the immediate work area of the quilt, has never gotten in the way, is extremely adjustable and what I would class as industrial strength. Beyond that there are going to be as many lighting solutions to light up your work space as there are Innova Longarms. We posted ours on the blog...but what works for us in lighting could be totally useless for others. Anyway it was interesting to see the subjects being discussed...again. Can't break away without a notice:

BIRDS OF A FEATHER will be held in FEBRUARY 2014 in our neck of the woods. Virginia Longarm and the Virginia Longarm Network (our dealer...no brag...just fact) sponsor this event and if you longarm and have the remotest opportunity to attend please do so. Information can be obtained by visiting www.virginialongarm.com and selecting the BIRDS OF A FEATHER tab. Oh...if you haven't seen their new web site...well hot damn. Sorry...couldn't help myself. If you do have the opportunity to attend and you are a PantoVision user I would love to have you attend the PantoVision Class I will be leading...information can be found under Class Descriptions once you've maneuvered to the Birds of a Feather page. I'm not certain if I could be bestowed with a greater quilting honor than to be listed with the likes of Valerie Schlake, Renee Haddadin and Jamie Wallen...just to name a few.  This is one of those "I'm not worthy moments."