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| 2007 North Park craft fair held in the high school halls. |
Two weeks have slipped by without a comment from me! Where does time go anyway! I have been so frustrated this fall with a malfunctioning embroidery machine! On Thursday just as I was gearing up for the fall craft fair here and just hours after I had mailed my check for a booth, my machine mysteriously shut down and only made clicking sounds when I tried to restart it!
I called Larry up at Twin Falls Sewing Center, my guru for embroidery machines and the man who keeps my machine going. He said it either overheated or the power board had gone out. By Friday I knew it was the power board. This was the third time since the first of September that I had to box up my machine and Fed Ex it up to Idaho! You may wonder why I wouldn't just take it in to my local Bernina dealer--Larry even asked me why that wasn't an option.
Well, here's the story on that. First, my "local" dealer would be like in Ft. Collins or Loveland 120 miles away over Cameron Pass. Second, I have tried both of those dealers plus a dealer in Casper WY while I was up at Carla's, and a huge repair shop for commercial machines near our hotel in Denver this summer. All of these except the last one would not even look at my machine for at least two weeks (they had to send it out to a repairman somewhere else or were overwhelmed with machines) and then could not say when they could get it fixed! The commercial place would have fixed it immediately but did not have parts for home machines and couldn't get them unless they were a dealer--which they weren't! Third, Larry always has fixed my machine the day he gets it or the day the parts get there and shipped it back the same day. If the parts are there he can get it back to me in about a week. The cost of shipping it is less than driving down to the valley anymore and Larry gives me great discounts ( I gave him a lot of business when I was teaching in Elko County).
Although it may sound like he doesn't do a good job (3 breakdowns in 2 months) it really isn't like that. Each of the problems has been about something else and he has always gone over my machine carefully before sending it back because of my isolation. I think my machine is getting old and I use the heck out of it, so it wears out parts pretty quickly. You might think I just need to get a new machine but Berninas do last a lifetime and it is just some parts that need replacing from time to time. Well, that is enough venting. It's just that it always happens when I am on a deadline so I have to be resourceful and flexible.
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| More Christmas decorations from 2007. |
This time it happened a week before the craft fair and I had plans for some great Christmas ornaments and fall(Thanksgiving) decorations and table settings. Well, maybe next year. Back to the drawing board...... I have some really great stuff I haven't sold yet so it will be there and of course my old mainstay, Meemo's Mountain Munch will be back along with our Christmas Cocoa Cones. I did get some projects finished and they will be there too along with some of my newest project--embroidered soaps!
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| Still more items. I have some of these things for this year too! Obviously not the food items!!!! |
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| Our decorated cocoa and scone cones that can hang on the tree or wall decoration. I have fresh made cones for this year and of course new Meemo's Mountain Munch, too! |
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| Close up of one of our decorated cones. |
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| Embroidered soap! |
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| Close up of the soap. |
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| When the soap gets down to the embroidery you can use the design for applique, key chains, ornaments or whatever. |
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Some cute stockings to hold small gifts or cards that can hang on the tree. I have a few for this year.
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I forgot to mention that Carla will have some of her handmade jewelry there too!
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