FUBAR

Well, old Bessie came home from the shop today.  I'm telling you, we were so glad to see one another that we just gabbed for hours.  Admittedly, I did most of the talking.  And admittedly, my sewing machine's name isn't "Bessie".  I haven't actually given her a name, although I'm relatively certain she is a female.  Who else but a woman would sew day in and day out and never get tired of it or need to stop to watch the game of the week?

Well, she's all cleaned up, and she definitely sounds better.  Her tension is all adjusted, and her FMQ skills have improved marvelously.  The speed problem is still not fixed, however.  I blame myself for not really explaining the problem correctly.  When we finally got around to sewing, I still could not control the speed with the foot pedal.  

When I took her in for repair, I explained that the slide switch wouldn't work with the foot pedal.  You can see the slide switch just next to the lower left corner of the machine's screen.  If I slide it all the way to the left, I can limit the speed of the machine to slow, or I can slide it all the way to the right to go as fast as possible.  That was only part of the problem.  I should also be able to control the speed of the machine by how much I depress the foot pedal, like stepping on the gas in a car.  That was the part I didn't explain adequately (partly because I didn't understand it myself).  I asked Mike to take a look at it tonight, just to be sure I wasn't crazy or something.  (One never knows.)  He agreed with me that the foot pedal had no function beyond being an on-off switch the way it is working now.

My first move was to check online to see what it would cost to simply replace the foot pedal.  Being a Bernina, everything is expensive.  So I was yelling downstairs to Mike what it would cost to simply replace it (because I really didn't want to take it back to the shop).  Unbeknownst to me, Mike, the engineer who can't resist an opportunity to take something apart and try to fix it himself, had already taken it apart.  He thought he had it all figured out, but in the process of putting it back together...something akin to stuffing an airbag back into the steering column once it's already deployed...he broke the little contacts.  Now the thing won't work at all.  In fairness to Mike, he's usually very good at fixing things.  This time, not so much.  Oy.

So now, I'm without my sewing machine again.  I did order a new foot pedal and it's being overnighted to me.  This being Wednesday evening, I don't expect to have it until Friday.  And if I don't have it on Friday, I'm going to have to ask for a different day in the blog hop, because I'm running out of time to finish my piece.  I don't think my Janome has the stitches I need to finish it.  So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Foot Pedal Friday, as I've just now dubbed it.

Today was supposed to be a stay-at-home day, but since I had to go into town and pick up the sewing machine, I decided to go grocery shopping as well.  I'm making some biscotti for Mike for Valentine's Day, and I didn't want to try to go to the grocery store on Thursday and then make biscotti too.  All of that to say that even if the sewing machine had been at home, there wouldn't have been much time for sewing.

I did trace out the first of the Quilting Snowladies today.

I'm using a tea-dyed muslin for this one, something new for me.  I like the vintage look, and it's what the pattern suggested.  So that's the latest on the sewing machine debacle.  Hopefully, Friday will bring me what I need to get on with things.