Can’t believe I’m at a stand still, I was on a roll with this quilt for raffling next year. Had to stop my progress because my sewing machine is on the fritz! Yeah…say it isn’t sew! I can’t sew! I feel like a kid that lost his/her favorite teddy bear or Pearl without one of her blankies!
How is it on the fritz? When I use my walking foot, it will stitch for a few inches, then it “jumps”, “hops” or “skips” (however you want to phrase it) several stitches and jerks the fabric. I can’t be the only person to have had this problem/issue, can I? I have to stop, take the fabric out of the machine and then rip the extremely “long”, skipped stitch and try again…or not. I opted to stop and evaluate the situation.
I turned off my machine, and yelled some colorful language at it. Yes, I did. It was out of frustration, my sewing machine and I may need therapy. Not that it cares. (Don’t act like you’ve never done it before, we all have!) I read the trouble shooting section in my manual, no help there, so I did a quick google search (gotta love the internet). Per google, check to make sure your presser foot/walking foot is attached correctly. I check and it is. Per google, if attached correctly take in for service. Wow…so helpful!
I opted to venture on my own before going to drastic measures, like taking it in and dropping it off for service. I mean, what would my machine do without me? It needs me just as much as I need it! Regardless of the verbal abuse! I decided to try cleaning it. Which it apparently needed, there was a lot of lint under the needle plate and bobbin case…even between my feed dogs. Once I cleaned everything out, I put her (maybe if I refer to her as a being rather than an object, she will work! Positive thinking people, cut me some slack!) back together and even put on a fresh, sharp, brand new needle. Feeling optimistic, and confident that I knew what the heck I was doing, I re-threaded her and wouldn’t you know it, sew about two inches and yet again, “jump”, “hop”, “skip” as several more explicit words shot out of my mouth and I shut her down. Needless to say, I dropped of my machine at a local service repair shop on Monday.
Called the shop yesterday, they tell me I need a new walking foot. I’m like, that’s all? Nothing else? They proceed to say she needs to be lubricated and her timing is “off” and that they will adjust/fix it. Total cost $150ish. I told them it was fine to repair, and asked when/if I could pick my machine up, tomorrow? They told me Tuesday next week! What the f***! A whole week? I am going through literal withdrawals here. What the h*** am I supposed to do?
I have been thinking about buying a larger machine (not a longarm…at least not yet!), one with a bigger throat space so I can easily quilt without wrestling my small machine to push the quilt through. Just imaging not having hand fatigue and the ease of flow makes me blissful. Now, I’m seriously contemplating biting the bullet and just doing it. After all, you can’t go wrong having a back up for when your main machine is down, right? I will be having a serious sit down with the hubby since I know it will be pricey. Only quilters will understand the expense of a good quality sewing machine. Not for justification, but for clarification…this is not a WANT! It’s totally a NEED!
Purrfectly Imperfect 