So many of you seem to have your machines in for repair at the moment. I'd like to share my experience yesterday with you.

I thought I had just enough time to put an applique design on a tea towel to complete the last of my Christmas gifts. The first colour began OK but then the machine started to labour and the hoop carrier could not move forwards and backwards, only left to right. In a panic I pressed the stop button, switched the machine off and on again. (That always seems to work for computers!) The scream of anguish from the machine was awful. The carrier on the embroidery arm was fixed in place so I could not even put the machine in it's case, so it went in the boot of the car as it was.
My local machine shop about five miles away has only had embroidery machines for a year so it isn't where I bought my machine but I have know the people their for many years. Luckily John was in the shop and he sat me down while he took his screwdriver to the machine. He found a tiny piece of thread wrapped around the gears stopping them moving. He fished it out and put everything back together.
If I had taken the machine to the dealer I bought it from, (50 mile round trip with horrendous traffic) they would have kept it for three weeks and charged me an arm and a leg, but John did it for nothing. I know where I'll be going if I decide to upgrade!
BTW I finished the tea towel when I got home - I just made the design a bit bigger so it covered the scars!