Thursday, September 16, 2010

Yippy!!

Look what came home yesterday!

After a very depressing phone call on Tuesday, I didn’t expect to see it for quite some time. My very nice repairman told me “oh, we are not doing well, at all.” With much trepidation I asked “why.” Well, he said that he and the main repair person at Brother had decided that one of the problems I was having was that there was thread still wound around the wheel, deep inside the machine. He also said that he cannot just take the wheel off because it is part of the “drive shaft” and if he takes that out I would have to have a new drive shaft (about $400). So he is doing what I did back in June 2009: please go see http://gariquilts.blogspot.com/2009/06/one-of-those-days.html before you read any further.

I knew I had not gotten it all out but I had taken out all I could reach. He said that he works on it in between other jobs, about an hour at a time is all he can stand, and I just need to be patient.

And then yesterday morning he called and said it was ready. When I went to get it he started describing how he got the thread out and it was exactly what I did back in June 2009 except that he had sharper and thinner tools to work with. The procedure is “cut threads, pull threads out, sometimes one at a time.” It is a very tiring procedure and here is what all he got out of her.

Anyway, she is home and we spent several very productive hours working on our Christmas projects.








Prior to that I had to make a block for the guild swap and I had to make it on a machine I have never tried to do a quarter inch seam.


I did a pretty good job anyway and it came out measuring 12 ½”. How about that!



And yesterday I also got some of the sashing cut for my Christmas project.


Although it doesn’t show very well, this 100% cotton fabric has a metallic finish so it really does look like gold. I spent a great deal of time looking for it (fabric shopping, what a shame) because I had thread just the shade/color I wanted and nothing else would do. I was so excited when I found this.

And to top off yesterday’s good news, DH invited me out to lunch and then later DD invited me out to dinner. One can’t do better than that.

I think I have a pretty good life (and family).

And, speaking of family, earlier this week DS#3 called to invite us to his and DDIL's house for Christmas. Now, normally I would love to be with them at this special holiday season. However, many years ago we were on our way to the DC area to be with my folks for Christmas when we hit ice on bridges in Atlanta. We watched the car in front of us do 360s and then we "crept" across (on more than one bridge). After snow on the way back I vowed I would never go north again in the winter.

Then many years passed and DS#3 invited us to spend Christmas at a timeshare in Virginia, just south of DC. I told him of my concerns and he assured me the weather was going to be fine. And we have a beautiful drive up there but when we woke the next morning everything was covered in a very thick layer of ICE. It stayed all the time we were there and was with us for half of the slippery drive home. Needless to say, I was not happy to be out of the deep south.


When the same DS#3 called for this invitation I reminded him of all of this history and he assured me that because they had experienced such a bad winter last year (driven out of their house becuase of no heat/electricity after a BIG snowstorm) this year would be much warmer and that it never snows before February (a big fat lie, by the way).

So, I am confronted with a dilemma. I really want to go to MD to spend Christmas with my son and his wife. I really do not want to go north at Christmas. What's a mother to do?

5 comments:

Jessica said...

That hair/thread ball is pretty gross. And I can't help your find your answer because I have a biased opinion. :-)

Gina said...

I'm so glad you have your machine back. What a load of thread you had caught. How did that happen?

All I can advise about the trip is to say is there anyway you can get a long range weather forecast nearer the travelling day. Over here they'll give a fairly accurate forecast fpr three weeks in advance. Of course they can't forecast everything but it might give you an idea

Love and hugs Gina xxx

Wilma Lee said...

Glad you finally got your machine back. What a mess!! I have that happen with my vacuum cleaner after vacuuming the sewing room a few times. The thread gets all wound around the brush and I sit for an hour or so cutting and pulling, lol.

Gretchen said...

So happy that your machine is back and de-threaded. I don't know what to tell you about visiting north for the holidays--the weather is so crazy lately who knows what it will do.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

Glad you got that threads nest out of the machine. Hope it purrs smoothly from now on. As to going north in wintertime, I would give them a tentative yes, and reserve the right to give a quick no. Keep an eye out on the weather forecasts, and decide then. I hate driving in bad weather too, but most of winter is about cold and not about bad roads anyway. Next year, invite them south!