Pushing down harder does not make it go faster

Don’t you think it should?  There I was, stitching on the binding of the burgundy and cream quilt.  I had the walking foot on, and try as I might, the machine was going ever so slowly.  No matter how hard I pushed the foot pedal down, the machine just wouldn’t speed up.  Chug, chug, chug, it went, as slow as a wet week!  It must be something to do with just having used my BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) foot, I thought.  Maybe I forgot to raise the feed dogs?  Or some other crucial step I had forgotten when switching back to “normal” sewing?  No, everything seems alright.  I know, I’ll turn the power on and off again, that sometimes works when computers misbehave.  That didn’t make any difference either.  Still as slow as before.  At this rate it will take me hours to stitch the binding on.  Just what is the matter with my machine?  Then………I noticed that one of the knobs was right over at the minus sign.  I moved it to the middle of the slot and then, wouldn’t you know it, the speed increased dramatically.  Success at last  I whizzed through stitching the binding down in  no time at all.  On reflection, I did feel a bit of a dummy though!  Guess I knocked the knob along to the left and didn’t realise it.  For those who want to know, this function is called the “Slide Speed Control” – I didn’t know that before.

Slide speed control on slow

The quilt has now been trimmed, the binding pinned in place, and I’ve started hand stitching it down.  The weather has turned rather chilly here today, so I’ll settle down in my comfy chair with the quilt on my lap and continue with the binding.  It’s a big quilt, so that should keep me quiet for some time.