A new friend in my sewing room

Let's see... A few posts back I wrote about my thoughts about sewing machines...  Remember, I was going to get my old one fixed, I was thinking of a new one.  So many wonderful pieces of advice but in the end, partially because of the bombardment of Tetsu's research data, I threw in the towel and decided to get my old sewing machine repaired.  

BUT...  A week later I picked up my machine and brought it home and a few days later started some free-motion quilting that I'd be waiting to get too.  And dang it all, if the thread didn't just keep breaking as before.  I adjusted tension, I rethreaded and fiddled as much as I could but the thread kept breaking.  I clumped back downstairs and called the repair shop.

"The sewing machine that you just fixed is still having problems and I can't get it to do what I want it to do!"

The repairman offered to come to the house and see what the problem was.

"But I live in the next town over, about 45 minutes away."

"That's okay.  I live in that area too.  I'll head out now."

Well!  That was a surprise.

Sure enough 45 minutes later my repairman was at the door and I invited him in.  And he took a look around my living room at the quilts I have on my walls.  Right now, most of them are McKenna quilts that have been heavily machine quilted.

We headed upstairs and he checked out the quilts that I'd laid out so that I could show him want I wanted to do.  I even had a few practice sandwiches ready so that I could demonstrate how I expected the sewing machine to function.  

The repairman fiddled around and though straight stitching was no problem at any speed, free-motion quilting at high speed caused the thread to snap.  He pointed out some basic problems.

"You have different weights of thread in your spool and in your bobbin.  You should try to keep the weights the same."

"But I exclusively work with white thread (60 wt) in my bobbin and decorative threads (90 wt) in my spool.  I'm not switching to all white thread."

He fiddled with the bobbin tension and I asked him to teach me how to do that.  And we got it working satisfactorily.  Unfortunately, this meant that I would have to change the bobbin tension at each change of thread or when switching from free-motion to straight stitch.

"Mrs. Watanabe.  I'll say it plainly but if I had known what type of sewing you are doing and seen you sew your pieces, I would have advised you that this very old sewing machine is being expected to do too much.  You are semi-pro even if you don't show your pieces or sell them.  You can get by with the repaired machine but you're asking for some stressful times trying to figure out the settings every few minutes."

"So...  we're back to square one.  I should just go ahead and buy the Juki machine in your shop?"

"No.  Because that is a domestic sewing machine.  You could really use an industrial machine if you aren't interested in fancy stitches or any of the embroidery function."

We went downstairs and I pulled out my iPhone and pointed out a few of the sewing machines that some of my blog friends had written about when I first posed the question.  Of course there was the problem of my budget too because I'd already spent enough money fixing the old machine (which can still be used).  Well, my repairman said he'd find me a suitable industrial machine for what I could afford and the deal was done!

Yesterday, two days later, my repairman was at my door at 9:00 (on his way to work from home...  he really does live near me) and he set up my new Juki sewing machine.  

This is going to take some practice as threading is completely different, and bobbin insertion etc.  But I am happy to say that I spent the rest of yesterday free-motion quilting and today put on borders and completed my first small quilt on it.

Here's to many happy years and many more projects with my new Juki machine.  I will HAVE to keep sewing just to get my money's worth!!!