It pays to read other peoples blogs...

in this case the blog in question is Rayna Gillman's.
I have been wanting to take a shibori class from Jan Meyers-Newbury but had a hard time finding a schedule for her. Thanks to Rayna's posting I am now signed up for Jan's class at the Newark Museum in November. This sort of killed 2 birds... I get to go back and visit my daughter and I needed to use up some airline miles that were set to expire.
The good news sort of cancels out the crappy days I have been having. THIS PART IS LONG WINDED. I am working on a black and white quilt and was ready to start the quilting on Saturday. This piece is larger than I like to work with on my regular machine. I have a Mega Quilter with original frame ( really want to sell it) and just had it in for service in May, but had not used it since. I did some practice stitching and all worked ok so I set the quilt up on the frame. After about 20 stitches the top thread kept breaking! So I spent the next 2 hours on the sample piece which I had left on there changing threads, bobbins, needles, tension.. the works. It looked like something I had done worked so back to the quilt. I got a section of about 4" square done before the thread started breaking again! Grrrr. I now called the dealer and spoke to the tech. I hate when they assume you are an idiot. We first went through... maybe the frame is not set up right.... I have the frame set up permanantly and had not changed a bloody thing since I last used it successfuly in May. He now suggested I take the machine off the frame and set it up on a table to see if the same thing happens. (He still did not believe me and was convinced it was the frame). Taking the machine off is a pain in the butt, but I did it. Set it up on the table and guess what???? the thread kept breaking. Did I mention that I need to have this quilt finished by Thursday before I go out of town? Dealer is not open on Sunday and I have to bring the machine in. Owner of shop is out of town and while she would normally give me a loaner for a few days, her help do not have that authority. They said they would call her. In the meantime on Monday morning I took the machine and the quilt into the shop. Of course the tech had to try it out and commented... the thread keeps breaking. DUH! The good part is that I got a loaner. I took it home and set it up and of course tried it on the sample piece and it worked like a charm. Now I have to reload a quilt that already has quilting on it. I thought I had it straight and tight.... Sigh. I finished the quilting this morning and removed it from the frame only to find out I had a bloody bubble in the center. *&^%$#E. What to do, what to do? Ah, the light bulb went off. I could applique something to the back... I can cut out some fabric and replace it with something else. Stay tuned... I will see if it works. If not, I can relegate all this work to the trash bin.