I bought a longarm quilting machine today. At a garage sale. For $200. It's old, it may need some work, and it's not especially long in the arm (10 inches), but it's mine! WOOHOOO!!!
So, the story:
We were doing our usual garage sale thing today. We hit a few down the road and then came back to our neighborhood to hit a few there before we came home. One of those sales was at the home of a neighbor who has lived here forever. She's a terrific lady who was very crafty. She's in the nursing home now and her daughter and son in law live in her house. They have had several garage sales of my neighbor's things and I have bought many things there - quilt tops, fabric, batting and batting and batting and batting.... I was a little disappointed today because there was no fabric there, no batting, just stuff. So we were browsing, looking at things, visiting with neighbors, had picked up a few things to buy, and started talking to the son in law about all the things they had sold and all the things they had left to sell. He mentioned there was a big quilting machine in the back. I asked if it was for sale and he said yes. Not sure if his idea of a big quilting machine and mine were the same, I asked if we could see it and he said yes. We went back to the shed and inside under boxes and chairs and who knows what else was a 12 foot quilting frame with a monster quilting machine on it! I have known this neighbor for over 10 years, been to her house many times, and did not know she owned a quilting machine. I think it's been in that shed since before I knew her. It's from the 80's, needs lots of cleaning and may not even work, but I figure the frame is probably worth $200. I was shocked they were asking so little for it! So we bought it.
Twelve feet is really long. I hadn't ever really thought about how long 12 feet is until today. It's 'really' long. And this frame isn't the easily disassembled kind. This house is only 3 blocks from mine, so we figured if we could just get a trailer we could get it home. We know another neighbor with a trailer, so we went home to ask. He wasn't home. While waiting for him to get home, husband and two sons went to unbury the machine and came home with the head. Took those guys to lunch and trailer neighbor still wasn't home. Ever the clever one, my husband decided we can get the table home with the wagon. Not a station wagon, a Radio Flyer. One end of the table goes on the wagon, he'll carry the other end while I pull. This didn't sound so great to me, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it. So we took off down the street with our wagon. It's really rattley when it's empty, so I rode in the wagon and he pulled me. When we got there we realized the wagon on the end would be fine, him carrying the other end wouldn't - it was just too heavy. He had almost brought some of the kids roller skates but hadn't. When we mentioned that to the neighbors they laughed, but also said that might work. They might be as crazy as we are.... They also mentioned that they had a wagon and maybe we could use that on the other end. So we did. Just imagine - a dumpy little woman in flip flops with a really good looking guy walking down your neighborhood street pulling/pushing a 12 foot quilting table on two Radio Flyer wagons. That would be us!
We live in the absolute best neighborhood on the planet. I know this is true because 3 neighbors stopped and asked if we needed help. The next question was, "What 'is' that?" And you know they love us because if they didn't they would have just driven right on by and pretended not to see the crazy couple with all those kids rolling down the street with whatever that monstrous thing is. So we can never move. Except now I have a 12 foot quilting frame in my living room because it's too big to get down to the basement where all my quilting things are! I thought I had a big living room until today. It's not nearly as big as I thought it was.... So we may need to move so we can house the quilting machine. Because I'm keeping it. Forever.
So, that's today's adventure. My mom is going to read this and think, "You can't afford to come see us in Branson but you can afford to spend $$$ on 'that'?" So anybody reading this who gets it, please comment that you are at least as crazy as me and would have done the same thing? Maybe not rolled it home on two wagons, but would have jumped at the chance to buy it? Please???
This is the table in my living room.
Ignore the mess, I'm pretending it's messy because we moved everything to get the machine in.
This is how far it sticks out farther than the couch. Yikes!!!
Here's the head.
This is the frame in my driveway on the wagons - are you laughing?
And one of the most wonderful man in the world. He has to be - who else would let his wife buy a 25+ year old monstrosity of a machine with precious $$$ and then wagon it down the street in front of everybody? And THEN nearly kill himself and oldest son getting it in the house? He must be the most wonderful man ever. Note the joy on his face.....I think it's really "What was I thinking when I let her do this?"
Here's the machine all cleaned up and ready to quilt. Note the practice materials loaded up and everything. Unfortunately, the machine insists on breaking my thread. Two sewing machine mechanics have been unable to resolve this difficulty. The first guy got it working except it kept throwing an occasional loop on the bottom. He said I just needed to get the tension right. Wrong!! I messed around with it till I had broken the tension, then called the second guy. He fixed the tension (replaced my take up spring - so that's how you adjust that thing.....), but now it breaks the thread really quick every time. The second guy assures me this is fixable and is not a machine killing issue, it just needs more time and attention than he had the day he came over. He promised to come back this week and fix it, but so far haven't heard from him. Tomorrow is still in 'this week' and it's before Turkey Day, so I've got my fingers crossed that he will show up tomorrow, fix my machine and I can spend the holiday quilting. Ya think?? Maybe when I grow up (and learn how to take apart a tension assembly properly...) I can become a sewing machine mechanic. Apparently, good ones are in high demand.
