I sent my 2 big Janomes to the shop to be repaired. My 8900 had needed it since last October! Yes, I’ve had it sitting in my living room for that long! I should be embarrassed, but I’ve managed to just cover it up and move on. Then, lately, as I was working on the hearts and needed my 12000 for the decorative stitches I began to notice that I had no tension on the needle thread when I sewed.

This meant that my thread on the underside wasn’t actually locking in the middle of the fabric, but rather just sitting there on the underside of the heart. Naturally, all those fancy stitches aren’t looking right underneath. However, I ignored it at long as I could. I tried everything, as I always do, but I finally came to the conclusion that I just HAD to send it back to the repair shop.

Both of them.

So, I made a promise to my husband and myself that while he was in Ukraine (last week), I would pack them up and get them sent.

It always takes a while, which is why I hate to do it.

Well, Thursday came and I hadn’t packed them up yet. I knew the next day was

I knew when I got up on Friday, that my husband was coming back that day, and I had made a promise - so I put aside everything else on my list and worked on

1. writing the letter that went inside the machines telling the repair shop what I thought was wrong, and

2. cleaning the machines up a bit and

3. getting the boxes (one of the boxes was downstairs already but the other was in the attic storage area)

4. packing the machines in the original styrofoam, taping them up, and

5. going on line and arranging for the courier to come and

6. taking them to the outside of the house where they could wait on the front steps area.

Then I had to wait around for the courier to come.

The courier came around 2 pm.

I took the time to clean off the area where the 12000 had been sitting and decided to break out my original sewing machine that we bought here in Poland (fall of 1994). It’s a small Pfaff Hobby. And it looks so cute!

I got it out and set it in the place of my normally gigantic (by comparison) Janome 8900 or 12000. I took some machine oil and put it in a few places that I thought it might be useful, threaded it up and it works like a charm.

I wanted it so I could work on some hearts - maybe I’ll use the zigzag stitch or something similar to use around the edge of the hearts. Maybe I’ll just play a bit.

I’ve not been using my Janomes for most straight sewing these days - just special things… things where I need the walking foot like binding quilts or when making the hearts - sewing on buttons and playing with fancy stitches.

I am getting ready to make another 200 or so labels for the charity quilts as I’m down to my last 10 labels so I need the 12000 working well. (It’s an embroidery machine as well as a regular sewing machine.)

I guess we’ll see what they say is wrong with them. The 8900 was something probably more major than the 12000 - as the whole feed dog mechanism area seemed like it wasn’t working. I hadn’t noticed it until I took off my dual feed foot and tried to just sew with a regular foot and the fabric didn’t move through. Using the dual feed had masked the problem as the dual feed foot (Accuquilt foot) had covered up the issue because IT had moved the fabric through. I suspect the 12000 just had a piece of thread caught where I couldn’t get to it - but it was probably time for some TLC by a professional anyway.

Anyway, I have plenty to keep me busy. I have the long arm, the straight stitch industrial Juki and now my cute little Pfaff Hobby mechanical machine which still works great. Now, granted I’ve not used it much since I upgraded, but have used it as a loaner machine to a couple of people through the years. (I will also say this machine has never been back for repair anywhere.)

I had loaned the Pfaff to someone back in 2005 and when I got it back one side of the the front door to the storage compartment area was broken - the little plastic nubbin was broken off which keeps it in place on one side. This made it a pain to use as when you sewed, the door caught on things since it didn’t stay in place properly. So I removed it completely and then it seemed like a nice free arm machine. That is great for sewing when you are putting on a round sleeve or fixing a small area, but not so great when you actually need a larger surface to support your project!

So, one day I realized that I should try to come up with a solution to the problem and not just suffer angst about it. So, I decided to make my little extension area.

Yes, it is very homemade, but yes, it also works well. And that’s what is important to me.

I used styrofoam, duct tape and then some shiny slippery aluminum tape (from my husband) to make a smooth surface for easy sliding of the fabric.