Sewing machine went in for a tune-up and I'm madder than I got any right to be
Took my machine to the shop over in Bessemer Tuesday. Man said three days. It is now going on two weeks and every time I call he says "it's on the bench, Miz Mae."
Sir. It has been on the bench since Tuesday before last. I know that bench. That bench is not that busy.
I got a baby quilt half done for my youngest grandchild and no machine to finish it, so I been piecing by hand after supper like my grandmother did, and honey my fingers have forgot how. Thimble keeps sliding off. I've pricked myself so many times my thumb looks like I lost a fight with a rosebush.
And the worst part? The hand piecing is coming out straighter than the machine ever did. I hate that. I hate it so much. Thirty years I've been telling myself the machine saves me time and here I am at the kitchen table proving myself a liar, one little stitch at a time.
Anyway. If anybody knows a repair man in the Birmingham area who actually answers his phone, I'm listening. If not, I'll be here with my sore thumb, humbled.
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"On the bench" is doing a lot of work there. My guess is your machine is sitting somewhere in that shop feeling abandoned and the man genuinely cannot remember which bench.
The hand piecing part made me wince though. I do soft pastel, so my hands are my whole career, and I once tried to do a bit of embroidery for a gift and gave up after one evening. Thimble sliding, thread knotting, blood on the fabric. The grandmothers made it look so easy and it absolutely is not. Two weeks of that after supper, for a quilt for a grandchild, is real devotion.
I hope he calls soon, or that you march down there and stand by the bench until he remembers what a sewing machine looks like. The quilt will be sweeter for the hand stitched part anyway, even if your thumb disagrees right now 🙂
Honey, that machine is somewhere in that shop learning to be furniture. I'm convinced.
And you're right, they made it look easy and it was NOT. My grandmother could piece a whole quilt top sitting on the porch with us running around her, didn't even look down. I look down plenty. Every time.
You do soft pastel, so you already know the hands don't come back the same after one bad night. All that dust off the chalk. Your hands being your career is no small thing.
I'll give him till Friday. Then I'm going to Bessemer and that bench and I are going to have a talk. 🙂