WIP Wednesday #15: Megaquilter Down

This is my mother-in-law's Around the World quilt, intended as a donation to CLC International.  I finished the machine quilting this week.  It's a small quilt, and I had it mounted one way on the Megaquilter to do the latitudinal lines.  Then I took it off and remounted it the other way to do the longitudinal lines... because the Megaquilter, not being a true longarm, can't do too much range of motion vertically.  All well and good, and I had done about half of one globe, when I must have pulled the top thread too far as I was trying to pop up the bobbin thread and KLUNK... broken needle.  And then, KLUNK.  Klunk (blunt needle). Klunk again.  Four ruined needles in quick succession and a call to the dealer... the timing's probably off, needs servicing.  Bring the machine in, pay $100 plus and wait for 3 weeks.  Seriously?  Do you know how much trouble I had getting that baby on the carriage 4 years ago?  I'm going to have to take pictures and notes as I disassemble the remote power switch, the stitch regulator, etc., and I'm going to have to have help physically lifting the thing off the carriage (after removing at least one of the bars). Ick.  Just when I was finally getting close to the point where I could work on some of my own quilts.  Oh well, it probably needed the servicing anyway.  But the dealership is on the far side of town, and no way will I be able to free up enough time to take it over there until Saturday.

So I quilted the rest of the quilt on my old Viking, which is a trooper even if it doesn't have a cool name like "Megaquilter."  And was able to hand it off to Grandma (I was on a deadline).  And I mended a pair of pants for Primigenitus that had had the side pocket seam ripped out (had to rip out the lining first, resew the seam, topstitch the seam for extra security, then resew the pocket lining).  And I did do 1 and 1/2 blocks of the Farmer's Wife, but no pictures this week, too tired.

I had moments this week where I asked myself, "Why am I sewing anyway if I'm not having fun?" Seriously, I had all the enjoyment in sewing that I might have had from working in a sweatshop, and less pride in my workmanship.  Almost all my sewing was for other people, not me.  I had much more fun with my knitting, where I produced a finished object: Stashbuster Spirals with a Sweet Tomato Heel, this pair for Tertia:

They fit her pretty well, maybe a little long in the foot.  But the heel is amazing.  I'm thinking of using this heel for all my socks from now on, it's that simple and elegant.  It works very well with the Stashbuster Spirals.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced even though I don't have much progress to report on my own account.