Day # 7 of repairs and a giveaway link.....

Chris is having a giveaway....go HERE to find out about it. I found out about it from our blogging buddy, Gene.

Day # 7 of repair work saw a good part of the old roofing materials torn off and new roofing materials put on that section. Work will continue today and for part of tomorrow and then the roof itself should be done. There will still be some outside work (new siding on the side of the house most damaged by the falling tree) as well as the new gutters. However, once the roof is done, they can proceed with the cathedral ceiling work inside the house....and since that isn't weather dependent, we should be on target to get the inside work finished by September 10 and the contents of our two rooms can come out of the storage pod and be brought back into the house (by the workers). Whew.......I know I'm thinking several days ahead, but.....I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Okay...now the good news about my sewing machine. In a nutshell, the gal talked to me about a silly (to ME) threading thing on this particular Janome....the Memory Craft 4900QC machine. I knew about this silly little thing. When I thread this model, I must push the needle up/down button TWICE, which I do (and had never seen done when threading any machine I've used). A little green light then comes on to thread it...which means all the inside mechanisms are in the exact correct spot. (This little green light had never been mentioned to me until today....not when I bought the machine NOR when I took the 3 classes....although it is in the manual.) IF you touch the turn wheel of the machine or bump into it even the slightest bit (which I may do when reaching for a new spool of thread) or move the needle the tiniest bit, the green light goes out. Now...I have to admit I don't keep my eyes fixed on that little green light. Well....if that light goes off, even if the thread is put by me in all the correct places, it doesn't go exactly in this one spot inside the machine where it needs to go unless that green light is on and the mechanism is in the exact correct spot. The dealer took the machine apart slightly to show Kaye and me. Kaye thought to ask her why it wouldn't malfunction right away instead of waiting for an hour or more of sewing time...which is a very good and logical question and that is what it did for me.....and the gal really didn't have an answer for us about that. However, she did tell us that after putting it on this model sewing machine, Janome did not put it on any other machine. That tells me it was a troublesome feature of the machine...and probably caused the same problem for many people, so they eliminated it in future machines they made. The machine came right home with me after the gal unjammed my quilt block and showed us the inner workings of the machine. You can bet my eye will be GLUED on that stupid little green light from now on when threading the machine. I don't have to thread it differently than I've done as I'm doing it correctly (one should hope after nearly 50 years of sewing!)....but I do need to make sure the little green light is on. (Gee...wonder what happens if the green light burns out????? Guess I'll have to be afraid to finish threading the machine until the light is fixed.) I was very glad Kaye was with me....as she calmed my nerves when we went into the store as I was ready to do battle with them. Kaye also remembered to ask WHY it didn't do this the minute I threaded the machine, which I wanted to ask but forgot. Thanks, Kaye, for being such a great pal. We both got some nice fabric there and then went to lunch and for some other things at Walmart. We had a nice day.

On the way home, I picked up my mail at the mailbox and got some books I'd ordered from Connecting Threads. There's a story with that and I'll try to remember to put it in my next post...as this one has grown too long already. I'll leave you with a photo of my "test" block for my February cottage for the block swap I'm in now. Good thing I did a "test" of it as it turned out too small...but I made a second one and it came out fine. IF you are in that swap and don't want to see it yet, don't look at the photo!!! Of course, not all of them will be the same (so yours might be different) AND there's enough time between now and February for you to forget what this looked like, so you might want to peek now anyway. LOL I just needed small projects to keep me busy while the roofers pound away at my house.... and this was one of them. Cute, huh? I think if you click on the photo, you might have guessed it was the February block without my telling you. :-)