Delay into De-Liberation

As of yesterday afternoon, my main machine was repaired but had not had its final check at the shop. It's been at the dealer's for two weeks, but at this point I'm actually grateful for that long, dry spell. More about that in a minute.

Being still unable to work on the garrison quilt, I finished the quilt (made on the Singer 503) that's going to The Center for Women and Families. Don't you love the blue jeans and white tennis shoes it's wearing in the photo? And it has two hands! :)

Thank you, Mark, for being my quilt hanger.

We'll deliver it there next week. Here's the back:

(Why didn't I pick the cat's tissue paper up off the floor?)

No label; not necessary, and this way it becomes a reversible quilt.

Since my main machine still wasn't ready, I pulled some more fat quarters off the shelf and started a table runner on the old Singer.

Finally, today my main machine was ready for pickup. But as mentioned before, I'm glad it took so long for the repairman to get around to it, because it gave me time to contemplate a possible upgrade. The updated model of my main machine (which I love, by the way) has been improved in every way I could have asked for, and now has an optional, attachable magnifying lens in three different strengths. For me, that feature alone is almost worth the difference in price, as I've had more and more trouble seeing what is going on under my needle while free-motion stitching on my landscape quilts. My eyes were never great (started wearing glasses at age 3), and now, entering my 60s, magnification has become a real issue. For the last three years, I've tried attaching a really nice, stick-on magnifying lens at every possible angle, and every time I found a halfway decent position for it, the darned thing would start coming unstuck and sag or fall off right in the middle of stitching. Even with duct tape! :-/

So the attachable magnifying lens, as well as all the other improvements on the updated model, were just too hard to pass up. This afternoon, instead of picking up my machine from its first repair in the 3 years since I purchased it, I brought in the manual and all the accessories for it, left them with the dealer for trade-in, and took the newer model home with me instead. (We won't go into how much spousal discussion it took to get to this point. ;)

So next week it's back to the garrison quilt, providing everything works as expected on the new machine. No more slouching, aching shoulders and neck from not being able to see what's under the needle. No more catching fabric, threads and batting on the dual-feed bracket behind the presser foot. No more awkward (really awkward) screw removal just to clean out the bobbin area. And no more chasing that small foot pedal around on the carpet (I have really big feet).

I'll stop there, but there are several other great improvements as well. Again, though, my 7700 was amazing. I love, love, love the way it sewed, even when the feed dogs were down.

Thanks again to Moore's Sewing and Learning Center here in Louisville, our awesome Janome dealer and an all-around wonderful sewing/quilting/embroidery shop. I've been dealing with them for over 30 years, and have never been disappointed.

Linking up to Leah Day's FMQ Project...she has, much deservedly, been nominated for MQX show's Teacher of the Year!! If you're a fan of her teaching, as I am, you still have time to cast your vote by visiting the link she has included in today's post. Also hooking up with Sarah Craig's Whoop Whoop Friday blog, as I sure have something to whoop about with this updated machine. Sarah has made a love-ly quilt for a friend who just had surgery.

Everyone have a great weekend! Hope your snow is melting (unless you're at a ski resort) and your ground is drying up (unless you're stranded in a desert).

Linda