Old Friend

The story so far . . . just a week out from the end of term, my sewing machine is giving trouble and one of my final pieces is puckering out of control. What to do? First I pulled out my old faithful Singer sewing machine. I gave it a dust down and a test run. The good news: its stitch is still the most perfect stitch I've ever seen. The not so good news: the limitations of driving the machine with my right knee and the lack of alternative presser feet and stitches doesn't make for a quick change over. Even so, I was reassured that I have a good basic machine which I can always rely on.On the strength of that reassurance I was willing to part with my usual sewing machine and see what the mechanic could do for me. That was also good news. They had just cleared a backlog of work and could look at my machine as soon as I could get it to them. So yesterday turned out to be an out and about day. I took the Elna to Footscray to the sewing machine shop; had a coffee and read the paper while waiting for them to do their thing and learned a bit more about my machine along the way. There was a bit of stuff caught in the bobbin case which was neutralising the bobbin tension--hence my inability to properly balance the top tension--ah ha! Also the bobbin case needed some maintenance. While it was there the whole machine got a good clean, lubrication and tweaking. I'm looking forward to stitching with it.

In another unexpected turn of events, I went on from Footscray to Werribee where my friend R was playing a football game. I've never watched a football game before--what sort of Melbournian am I!--and the team had never won a game. I can't claim any responsibility, but I watched and they won! So that was my day. I had a my quilting class to teach in the evening. Now today I'll need to do some of the homework I didn't get to do yesterday.