Some good...some very, very bad

 Good news! The 'cheeseburger cheeseburger' bird is a Carolina wren. I finally saw it and looked it up on my Merlin bird finding app.

Ta da!

I finally finished the huge custom quilt and am ready to change gears to doing pantos and charity quilts on the Gammill while the Millie is out of commission. (that bad news comes later...) I didn't think this quilt needed custom quilting because the patterns on the fabrics are so busy and conceal the stitching. The customer wanted custom, so here we are. A week and a half's worth of work, and I am correct. Cant see the quilting on the front at all. The back is nice, but who cares about that? Not me. It will be  beautiful on a bed, though.

The finished quilt.

See how big it is?!

All that work...I can barely see any of it.

Here is more.

On the back, the quilting is more visible because the thread is a lighter color.

There are wiggles and wobbles. Hesitation causes these. I couldn't always see where I was going on the quilt, but I think it turned out pretty despite my failings.

A bit more of the back.

After taking the quilt off the Millie and dismantling the machine, carriage and most of the table, we tested all the cables and their connections. We then put it all back together (minus the roller bars) and tested it again. Same trouble. Tech says they are going to send a new leg motor. $500 please. This machine is three years old...am I dumb or something? Anybody out there want a used APQS? I'm ready to sell it and move on. The $500 part will bring the cost of the machine (bought at the show sale price) to $30,000. It took the first two years after buying it to pay it off. We may cut our losses and sell it, going back to hand guided quilting on both Gammills. Okay, I've vented enough.

Here is where it all started. The machine messed up and then had this screen.

Tech had Mr Wazoo crawl under the table (quite a feat for a 75 year old geezer with two fake knees) and take off a motor under there. After that, we had to take off the back two roller bars, the machine and carriage. After lunch, we hooked it all back up again (without the roller bars) and did a test. Nope...same warning box came up.

So here we are. I made the quilt hanging over the front bar while Mr W did his thing under the table. The other big folded quilt is the one I took off. I will have to remove the first two rows of quilting before I can go back to quilting it.

Millie is now bungeed to the carriage and table so she won't accidentally fall off.

On the brighter side, it didn't rain today! We had a pleasant, cloudy day. I had the studio door open and we heard the gentle ding-dong of the wind chime  on the deck. I sewed a lap quilt while waiting for more instructions to text through, and to pass the time. Mr Wazoo watched the talking heads going on and on about the virus. I'm sure we are all realizing this is just the beginning...
Outside, the garden doesn't know there is anything wrong. It is slowly waking up and showing signs of life. Molly is happy to sniff the grass without being soaked through by rain. We're washing our hands more and staying close to home, but a small distance from each other. Every tickle or cough makes us wonder if we have been exposed somehow. I hope you are all calling or emailing your friends and family. I know I am so grateful to have kids who FaceTime with me and text fun jokes to my phone. As Winston Churchill  once said, "Keep calm, and carry on."

Peeky blue flowers jus popping up.

Blue sky!! And fluffy clouds.

Molly getting a snootful of good smells.

Even the potted flowers perked up!