Monique has a Spa Day

You may recall that I purchased a second hand Grace Q’nique 14+ mid arm quilting machine at the beginning of the year, which we named “Monique”.

To date I have only had a very little play with her, as she was having some tension issues. It was high on our list of priorities once we returned home to have her serviced.

We met Hans, who is the dealer who sold her to her previous owner, at the Hawkesbury Craft Fair and were in the process of arranging to take her down to the Southern Highlands for him to give her a good service and get some tips.

However, on Saturday, we received a phone call saying that Hans would be travelling through Bathurst on Sunday and he could call in and give her a service.  How good is that! It turns out that he travels out this way servicing sewing machines for shops in various country towns.

Also, that was the best incentive I could receive to get my sewing room tidied up, which was also on my To Do List.  Actually, it wasn’t nearly as big a job as I had anticipated.

So, on Sunday morning Hans arrived with his bag of tricks and gave Monique the once over.  We had been told that Monique had not been used much.  Well, once Hans looked at the diagnostics, she had only stitched 47,000 stitches.  We stitched another 5,000 stitches on Sunday, so it appears that Monique had hardly been used at all, as most of those stitches would have been me playing around.  She is like a new machine.

It was so much better having Hans visit us, as he was able to check out the whole setup, rather than just the machine.  We learned quite a few tips and tricks, so now I am ready to start having a bit more of a play.  I’ll load some more calico to play on, and after that I will stitch a few simple baby quilts and have a go with them.

I purchased a laser stylus, so will be able to play with some pantographs.

Hans was interested in all my old machines, and in particular the little German one that Mick recently played with.  He kept going back to look at it and said he had seen photos of them, but never seen an actual one.  It must be quite rare, as he is German and learned his trade with sewing machines in Germany before coming to Australia.

In the end, it has gone home with Hans for his collection.  It was an interesting addition to my collection, but I think he will really appreciate it.  I’m pleased it has gone to him.  

I have several other machines that I can pop on my shelf, that will be better on display, rather than just packed away.