Thankfully, I have a spare machine that enjoys hanging out in the darkness of my utility closet, being used as a playground for spiders and generally gathering enough dust to stuff a small pillow.
Quite honestly, it's barely good for more than that, but I keep it because I've been told I can't call myself a quilter if I only own one machine. Whatever.
This machine is an Elna 1010, the beginner beginner machine I got when I was already an advanced beginner but too cheap to pay more than $150 for a real sewing machine, and somehow it lasted me for about 5 years. Today I barely lasted an hour on it, as it is lacking, in no particular order of importance because all are equally missed:
- A light. Now there must have been one, and it's probably just burned out, but for the life of me I can't even find where it goes.
- A thread up/thread down button. When I got my new machine with this feature I thought for sure I'd never use it - way too fancy for me. I spent the morning smacking at the front of the Elna with my finger attempting to lift the needle, so I guess I do use it a lot.
- A needle threader. I no lie spent at least 40 minutes just threading the needle without it.
And can we all just take a moment to hail the almighty drop in bobbin?
Anyway, I wouldn't want to quilt anything on this thing, but at least I can piece, albeit not without issue as we have determined. So today I went through my UFOs and found two of these blocks I found on an orphan block table at a guild meeting, and decided to make one more.
Tomorrow I hope to whip them into a runner.
I've also been working on the writing part of Kickin' Stash, which I have decided will have to count toward my 4 hours worth of makeup sewing I have to do this week. The thing won't write itself, after all.
3 comments:
If there was a get well soon card for a machine, I'd be sending it! Hang in there and make sure you tell Elna you appreciate her. Without her you'd be handsewing. With reading glasses. Which also might've been handy when trying to thread this one for 40 minutes. ;)
I was also going to ask if you were wearing the now-determined-to-be-needed reading glasses when taking that long to thread the needle. ;) And, what are you writing for Kickin' Stash? Just wondering, b/c you sent us the instructions for the block and they were very clear, so what else goes in to writing a pattern? (for my uneducated non-quilt designer inquiring mind)
I, too, recently lost use of my Bernie for 10 days and had a trusty Featherweight for backup. Not the same, I could barely function. Kept moving my right leg to push the lever that lifts the needle.
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