Imagine it’s late at night.  You’re rushing to finish a quilt for the next day.  You are up to sewing on the binding (even though the quilting’s not quite finished).  Then, suddenly, a machine which has been working hard, but happily, for hours, starts breaking needles.  Snap.  Snap.  Another one.  You open up the machine, dust, adjust everything you can see and try again.  Snap.  I mean, obviously something is wrong with the machine.  Something is out of alignment.  More adjusting.  Snap.  Snap.  A few tears, and the acceptance that this quilt is not being gifted on tomorrow.

The next day.  Ring the shop.  Arrange drop off for obviously faulty machine.  Find manual (online, because the actual booklet is hidden somewhere very, very safe).  Read manual, make more last ditch adjustments.  Sew slowly.  Because it’s only when you speed up that they break you know.  Buzz.  Needle stuck.  Obviously something out of alignment.

No, wait.  Fabric feels thick just there.  Feel fabric.  Lift binding fabric.  Find, A BASTING PIN.  Yep, innocently stuck in the way.

Label self “Idiot Sewer of the Week.”  Sheepishly admit that it’s all my fault.  Test theory by completing binding with ease, checking frequently for basting pins along sewing line.

Apologise to machine.  Look how hard it tried by punching holes in the pin.  And yes, that’s the remnants of some of the needles.

A lesson learned.  Always check for user error first.  On the plus side, my machine is good as new!