For my last weekend of vacation, I thought that I would spend it doing a little quilting. Chris was happily ensconced in the den playing The Last of Us 2, so I had three days of nothing much planned. I figured I would get Prairie Life quilted, maybe even bound, and get started on Bee Patriotic, the summer sew along hosted by Lori Holt. It would be a nice, quiet weekend, and things would get DONE.

The best laid plans of mice and men … or women, in this case.

I ran in to one roadblock after another, but the long and short of it is, my Pfaff Creative 4.5 is skipping stitches when I try to free motion quilt (FMQ) or embroider anything. It’s also shredding thread. But when I try to straight stitch, it seems fine. This leads me to believe that the timing may be off in the machine, but I don’t understand how that could be. It was serviced a couple of months ago, and I haven’t broken any needles or had any issues with it until this weekend. I’m not happy, though, I can assure you of that. It’s not easy to see the skipping in these photos, but it is there. This is a quilting stencil that I digitized for embroidery.

This issue makes me think that I need to find a way to put the Viking in to a cabinet or other table that will allow me to have a flat surface. I’m pretty sure that if I could use the Viking in a cabinet, this quilt would have been quilted this weekend. I don’t have a cabinet for it, and even if I did, I don’t currently have an insert to make a flat, closed surface. I know a lot of people use a Sew Steady table and FMQ, but I can barely do it with a perfect set up, let alone one that would require the sewing machine to sit on a table top.

Of course, I will take the Pfaff in for servicing, but who knows how long that will take. Last time it was in the shop, it only took two weeks, but a couple of weeks ago, I overheard one of the shop people tell a customer that repairs and cleanings are currently running five weeks. This is why I have a back up machine, but I’m not quite set up for the Viking to be my only machine.

I’m totally bummed out.

I didn’t plan to spend $100 on a new Sew Steady table for the Viking at this point, but here I am, about to make that purchase. What’s the point of having a back up machine if I can’t use it for it’s intended purpose – to sew – because I don’t have the tools that make it most comfortable for me to use? I had planned to put money aside for the next few weeks to buy myself a new heat press machine, but now that’s going to have to wait. I came to this decision Sunday night.

Then Monday morning, when I returned to work, I found that my heat press may take even longer than I had originally anticipated. It looks like I’ll be getting a no-expense paid vacation from work soon in the form of a two week unpaid furlough. Now … let me say this before I go any further. I’m happy it’s only a furlough and not a lay off. I’ve been down that road before, and I would prefer not to do it again. I don’t love my job, but I do love being able to live in a nice house with nice things and not have to worry about finding a job in the current climate. I hope this is a one-time thing, but I haven’t heard how it’s going to happen. We can afford for me to be out of work for a couple of weeks, so I’m not too worried about that. Also, we can apply for unemployment during the time we’re not working. I have a feeling that my furlough won’t start until August or September, so that extra $600 a week that people are getting now won’t be a thing for me, but whatever I get will help to defray some of the cost of being out of work.

I’m actually not terribly sad about it, provided that it’s the two week furlough other colleagues are getting, and a one time thing, because I can use the time to get things done around the house. I have plans to get a lot of crap out of the house and in to a new storage unit we rented during vacation, but time is short on the weekends with Chris working Sunday through Wednesday. I also have plans to sew up a few things, including some clothes for me and Christmas gifts for this year. Can you believe that we are nearly halfway through the year?! How is that even possible?? I have tons of things planned to do for Christmas this year, but I’ve yet to start them, so I need to get started real soon.

Back to my sewing machine issue.

This is the reason why I have two machines. I thought I could live with one that was set up for just basic sewing, but I’m not sure I can. I need to investigate ways to get another table in my studio and set up another sewing station. Just when I think I’ve come up with a studio set up I like, I run into issues that require more finagling. Like I said earlier, the best laid plans of mice and men …