Sick Bernina

Last evening, I was all good. Supper was over, kitchen cleaned up, husband off to a meeting, daughter upstairs doing homework (texting), and I was on a roll with my broken dishes construction. I had the Cavaliers-Grizzlies game on tv, listening as I stitched, and I was motivated to get several blocks finished off!

So, there I was, just stitching away on my hour-glass blocks, when right in the middle of a seam the fabric stops feeding through. What the heck?!?! Nooo! This can't be! I rethread the machne, re-insert the bobbin, brush out the fuzz and blow it clean, and still no-go.

There's Miss Bernina, still sitting on the dining table (after Friday's marathon day with Sharon), light off, and surrounded by myriad hour-glass blocks all marked and pressed and ready for action. But, no action. I can tell when I attempt to adust the stitch length knob (3rd one down) that it isn't "catching" whatever mechanism inside there that completes the feed dog function.

Miss Bernina and I will be off a little later this morning to a repair shop for what I hope will be a quick fix.

I'm wondering how many machines serious quilters need to have for situations like this. I've never had more than one machine at a time. I do have several quilting girlfriends, though, who have three, or even four. It has never seemed essential for me to have more than one - and I've been supremely happy with mine. She's near 20 years old, possibly older. I bought her brand new and at a drastically reduced price when a local quilt shop was going out of business. Back in July, she just had a serious cleaning and check-up when my daughter was finishing up her 4-H project. As a result, Miss Bernina was performing beautifully.

Hopefully soon, I will get back to my blocks. Aren't they pretty?

In the meantime, I will return to hand-stitching the Cheddar Cheese and Crackers doll quilt. I don't mean to sound like I'm disappointed in doing that, because I truly do like hand-stitching, and the doll quilt is such a fun little project to work on.