Finished for Friday: Cutting My Right Arm Off

I can can kiss my children goodbye and send them to camp for a week. I can kiss my husband goodbye and watch him leave on all his business trips. But take my sewing machine into the shop and I have anxiety attacks. Here's what my sewing table looked like, a black hole:

I had procrastinated doing this for so long that it was a full year overdue, so I'm very proud of myself that I finally bit the bullet and did it this week. Of course, the experience wasn't without drama.

I took my machine to Eddie's Quilting Bee. They were having a big sale and party and the place was packed. As I stepped up to the register with my beloved, Eddie came across the store to greet me warmly, because he remembers how much money I always spend my sparkling personality.

"Ah yes! How are you doing! Wait a minute, let's have a look at that" he said as a few customers lined up behind me with their purchases. He took the cover off and opened her up. "That's what I thought. You have a plastic hook. You're going to want to replace that with a metal hook. Works much better. It will be a whole new machine."

Did I mention Eddie is quite a salesman? I nervously eyed the backup that was increasing behind this sole register. The pressure was on to finish the transaction. And everyone was listening. What if the word got out that I had this inferior plastic hook? What if the word got out that I didn't keep my sewing machine up to date. I started to sweat. "How much is that?"

"$110." I tried not to gasp at the amount. Then rationalization brain kicked in. 1) I didn't take my machine in for servicing last year, and this is about what that would have cost. 2) This is my instrument of therapy, and I don't splurge on much of anything for myself. 3) Probably some other random thoughts popped in there, not the least of which that the backup in the line was at least a dozen shoppers now. I agreed to the upgrade and watched sadly as they took it to the back room.

Of course, I swore I would get a lot of non-machine sewing done. Applique a dozen blocks, baste some quilts. It didn't happen. I mourned. Finally the day came to pick it up.

" Ah yes, there you are. The hook." Eddie was all smiles. "This is a great machine. Did you know I could give you a trade-in of $700 if you'd like this nice machine here? I could give this one to you for. . ." At this point Eddie seemed to mull over a special deal just for me. After a pause he named an amount. Let's just say it was 4 figures. Did I mention Eddie is quite the salesman?

Do people actually just walk into a store to pick up a newly-tuned machine and trade it up like that? I wish I had that kind of money. I love how he was treating me like a Serious. Grown-up. Important Quilter. One for whom apparently money was no object when it came to their craft. Unfortunately, money is a bit of an object so I had to decline. Love ya Eddie, maybe next time.

So the overdue annual tune-up was my finished project for the week. What did you get done? If you've got any kind of finished project, please

• link up with Mr. Linky below
• link back to me
  
• feel free to grab the button from my sidebar