What does rubbing alcohol, q-tips, car-wax, and chocolate bark have in common? I’ll give you a moment, it’s a hard one…
Did you guess it? SEWING MACHINE MAINTENANCE DAY!
I am a very lucky girl and I get to leave town for a retreat in a couple of weeks and that always reminds me that I need to do a serious cleaning of my machine(s). I have three machines that I regularly use and two of them require that I do the maintenance and cleaning. I take my PFAFF ambition 1.0 to the shop, and I do most of the work on my Bernina 807 and APQS Ultimate 1. Even though it is a chore, I still really enjoy just sitting down and spending time with my machine (the chocolate bark that a friend made doesn’t hurt either). And even though I have been quilting for almost 13 years now I still break out my manual and refer to it the entire time I am cleaning and oiling my machines. Because I give my machines this love, they love me right back and I rarely have problems with any of my machines. Is it time you gave your machine some love?
I also had a really fun fast customer project this week I want to share with you all. I got to start with a completely blank canvas… I just ran my hands up and down the smooth softness waiting for the fabric to speak to me, it was glorious.
I then stepped back into reality of the job that I was hired to do. My customer wanted to make a fabric wrapped headboard for her guest bedroom. She gave me a chunk of microsuede-like fabric and asked if I could quilt it into woodgrain. YES! I can for sure do that. And now that it is done… I want one.
I think it turned out really neat and what a quick project with big fancy impact for a bedroom. So I will leave you this morning with thoughts of how you might spend a Sunday afternoon giving your machine a little love before you make it go back to work for the week. Thanks for stopping by today to check up on what has been going on here.
That is a really great headboard! Love it!
It is so soft too and she said there is a TV in her guest bedroom. It makes me think she should have a bed and breakfast.
And I want one too!! It turned out so perfectly!
… and she found the fabric in the remnant bin!… She was a lucky girl.
What a cool idea for a headboard! I love how it looks. On the other hand, I would be too scared to take a sewing machine down like that. I’ll clean the bobbin area, but that’s it. Is the car wax for the machine bed though, so the fabric has less resistance?
Kathleen, I find that the older machines are much easier to work on and I don’t even touch my machine that has a computer, I just take it in to the shop. I use the car wax to wax the rails on my long arm machine. It helps it to glide very smoothly.