Down the repair path...again

 As if by fate, I had a machine breakdown yesterday. This time it is Big Gammill, my friend, my workhorse. She suddenly stopped making the even small stitches I am used to seeing. I checked the encoder and the timing...no luck. No matter what I have her set on, the stitches are just a bit smaller than basting length. Even in the manual mode, she runs at the same speed no matter what speed I set her for. Gammill tech guru will be on the phone at 10:30 this morning for a long "try this...try that..." session. Mr Wazoo is already in a bad mood. Penny has  diarrhea. When it rains, it pours!

I did finish this beautiful quilt on the Millie. She is up to her usual tricks. Taking off on her own, freezing the computer screen, refusing to obey any button command. I turned her on and off at least five times during the quilting process. It takes forever to finish something when I have to keep stopping, shut her down and re-insert the parameters of the pattern. At least I was smart enough to take a picture of the settings before I started the process. Live and learn!

Thankfully, I had the forethought to photograph my settings!

This quilt is lovely! The blocks are really small and perfectly sewn. The center 9 patches are 2 !/3 inches square.

The panto is new, and I can't remember the name offhand. It is from Creative Stitches and didn't come in my format. Fortunately, I was able to trick Millie into using it.

The nice pattern of vines and leaves shows well on the back.

Well, it's time to get dressed and go down to the studio. I have to load some fabric to stitch on while attempting to fix Miss Gammill. The custom quilt has to come off.

Two customers had the same problem yesterday...they were adding their bindings and noticed the thread on the back was two colors. Guess what happened there. Sigh...the gray thread one had one row of green and the green had one row of gray. Both ladies were very nice about it, but I am totally embarrassed and made the note to self to not have bobbins wound for more than one project at a time. I must have picked up the wrong one and happily quilted the last row with the other. I did the second quilt with that thread, and when the bobbin ran out, switched to the second bobbin of thread number one for the other quilt. The colors were close, but no cigar. Two free quilts in one day.

On the bright side, I have all the components made for the rush repair job and ready to begin the hand sewing. It is a huge job, and the 25th is really an unreasonable goal for the finish. We'll see how it goes.

I hope we survive this political quagmire we are in. Another policeman has died of his injuries from a rioter hitting him over the head with a fire extinguisher. I am so sad over this whole mess. Many elected officials are still spouting their conspiracy theories, as people are dead from the mob they incited. Fox News continues to inflame its disciples. In a week or two, Corona numbers will rise again from the debacle we watched in our nation's capitol. Perhaps that is why I am making stupid mistakes and feeling so discombobulated. Today has to be better...