Happy New Year!
I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything. I haven't been doing much for sewing. I did make a really cute snowman tabletopper.
I also started on a Memory Quilt with hockey jerseys. I cut squares of lightweight interfacing at about 13", fused them to the back of the shirt fronts and cut 12 1/2" squares. I cut sashing and cornerstones at 3 1/2". There are 20 shirts in a 4x5 layout. The first border is 2", the second is 1", and the outer is 5". The outer border is a print with hockey related items. I pieced this border so that the seams don't show. It takes some time to match up the motifs, but it's so worth it when the seams just disappear.
As I was sewing the sashing onto the blocks, my Sapphire 850 started making some really loud noises. It rattled, and clattered, and clanked. I cleaned out the bobbin area. It didn't help. I rethreaded everything. It didn't help. I was getting ready to take it in, when I remembered that last spring it was making some noises [not quite as bad as this time], and when I got it down there, it was fine. So I unplugged it, carried it around the house, set it down a couple of times, wiggled it around. When I plugged it back in, it sounded fine! I was SO glad I saved myself some embarrassment.
After about 30 minutes of sewing the needle went up and there was a whole different noise, like something was spinning inside. I pushed on the foot pedal, the needle went down and the noise. I unplugged it for awhile. It sounded fine when it started up, but when I pushed the button to put the needle down, there was that awful noise again. I pushed the button to take the needle back up. Nope, just noise. It sounds like something is spinning inside, but isn't catching on something it's supposed to catch on. So, it went in yesterday. They didn't look at it at all, I wish they would have, but I didn't want to push it. I feel like they think I'm just a big pest. When I talked to the repairman who works on my machines when this all started, he said it worked fine when I had it in a couple of weeks ago. After I got the noise to go away, I called him back and told him what I did, and about last spring, and asked if there could be something loose inside. He said he didn't think so. I will call tomorrow to see what they find out.
I have my mom's machine, a Janome 415, quite a few steps below my Sapphire, but I have to admit, it does sew nice. But what a pain to have to raise and lower the presser foot by hand! Yes, I'm spoiled. And I won't even attempt to machine quilt with it, at least nothing quilt size.