Trusty sewing machine is BACK!!!

I got mom's sewing machine back from the shop on Friday but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. My brother was in town from Springfield, MO so I was busy with him and, oh yeah, we also both ran in yesterday's Tucson Half Marathon. Mark finished 12th overall. I had a PR (personal record) of 2:22:12 (despite the reappearance of my hip injury) and I was 900-something overall. I'm limping around today since every muscle below my waist is sore and tight.

Time for some sewing this week. Gotta finish those Christmas gifts!!!

My step-grandma Lorraine (a.k.a. Grandma Raine) was admitted to the ICU this weekend with double pneumonia :-( She's a fighter though so everyone is hopeful that she'll pull through this since she's battled cancer and lumpus for the past decade. Still a tough time for the family.

Updates...

Yesterday was "Art in the Garden" and the rough economy was evident. I didn't sell any of my quilts but did sell out of all my smaller items. I also noticed that the other crafters/artists were selling their less expensive items too. Kathleen, who was selling delicious spiced pecans, did the best. I sold 3 crayon rolls and 3 ornaments and could have sold more if I'd had more time to make more. But I gave out my card and have some interest for the future. Now I need to get my Etsy site up & running (at least I have some inventory now).

Mom's machine is in the shop and 2 of her 4 gears are shot. It's not going to be a cheap repair but definitely necessary. Mom wants it fixed. So the $60 I made yeasterday will go towards the repairs and I am hoping mom & dad will pay for part of it since gears wear out voer time so this is not something I did recently. But this puts a serious crimp in my plans to make holiday gifts. I still have Lily's fabric colors book to make plus ornaments for everyone. Mark & Didi might not get their quilt for Christmas either.

Out of commission

Just when I needed it most, mom's sewing machine decided to take a break. I think the timing needs to be adjusted and perhaps a few other things fixed. I tried to see if there was anything I could do it fix it but I couldn't. But I did get to see the "guts" of the machine. I called around to a couple different places today and am going to try to drop it off after work today. One place said the earliest they could get it back is December 14th, nearly 2 weeks away!

I am going to try to finish things I was working on with my sewing machine but it is not as nice as mom's machine, I am not as comfortable with it and I do not have a walking foot for it so I can't finish any quilts until I get mom's back

I might have really done it now...

I think Mom's sewing machine might be official broken and in need of a trip to the repair shop :-(
A few months ago, I started having trouble with it skipping stitches on zig-zags and then it started skipping stitches on the straight stiches too. I oiled it and it started working better but not 100%. Last night as I was close to finished another quilt top for Art in the Garden this weekend, it stopped working properly :-(
The needle is hitting some part when it goes down. I tried tightening some screws and replaced the needle but no luck. I am going to try a couple more things when I get home tonight but it might be out of commission for a bit. I have my machine as back up but I am not sure how well it will do with machine quilting, espcially since I do not have a walking foot attachment for it.
I know I had put off repairing it when I shouldn't have but we needed to repair my car instead... so it really is my own fault that mom's old Singer has decided to take a nap.