I need to brag on God a minute. Let me tell you a story of what he did for me this weekend. It might me a little long…but it’s in the details that God’s grace shines through.
Friday night I had a quilt on the machine that I needed off by Saturday morning for a meeting with a new customer. I fired up the machine and it worked like a dream. The thread broke only 1 time (some times this is a miracle in and of itself), there weren’t any skipped stitches even on the thick paint on a t-shirt decal. It was going great. I had it completed in no time. I thought, if this is how it is going to go, I will be able to finish quilting the other 2 and bind all three tomorrow (Saturday). How great my plans were.
Along comes Saturday. The meeting with the customer was going along fine. He is remodeling a fancy car and wants some of the interior diamond quilted on black suede with silver thread. I had a practice piece on the machine, using my thread it was great. Looking really sharp. Then to try out the thread he brought. It is a thick nylon. I loaded the machine and gave it a go. While the top looked ok, not at smooth as the thinner thread, the back was a mess. (My machine didn’t like the thread) I made a couple adjustments, put in a bigger needle and tried again. Still nasty on the back. “What about bigger/longer stitches?” He asks. Ok, I make another pass and snap, there goes the needle in 3 places. I fiddle with the machine a little and realize that the needle won’t go up and down and the bobbin basket/case aren’t moving either. Uh Oh, I just replaced that piece 2 months ago.
I finish up with my customer. The thread is out, but if we can find a strong thin thread, the project is a go. Great…now what do I do with my machine. I begin to take it apart. I pray, “God help this to not damage the machine beyond repair. I can’t afford for the machine to be down right now. I have too much to do.” There was a temptation to panic and get frustrated, but God helped me calmly disassemble the mechanisms. At first there was a screw I couldn’t get to, but he helped me find a short enough screwdriver to get in the little place to loosen the screw just enough. Then the needle shank was still in the shaft on the machine. How do I remove that? Well, oil it up and run the machine, gravity and God helped it slide out enough that I could grab it with some pliers and pull it out completely. Then God sent some help in the form of “man hands” to help further take apart the bobbin basket that had screws that I couldn’t remove. This had to be taken apart as the thick thread was jammed in the basket hindering all movement. It was to move to work. All the while there was a peace through each step.
Jump ahead to after everything is reassembled. I hold my breath as I start the machine on a sample piece…and it quilts. Thank God.
I get the next quilt loaded, (by now it is after lunch and I haven’t gotten anything done that day that I wanted). I take a break from it all to go pick up the binding fabric for the three quilts. I decide to bind the one that is quilted and go back and forth. That way I am not standing or sitting for hours on end. Quilt #1 is bound with no problems. 2 more quilts to go.
I head out the the sauna I call my garage and start up the machine. It’s going ok, but there are a couple skipped stitches that are not ok. I remember that I messed with the pressure foot, maybe it needed to be lowered some more. “Thanks God for that reminder.” I take care of that and smooth sailing it is until I have about 8″ by 24″ left to quilt and my machine decides it is time to go on hyper-speed. I don’t agree with my machine. Hyper-speed is never the thing to do. While this would tend to frustrate me and get me agitated because again there is a delay. God gave me peace. I turned off the machine, it was too hot in the garage to work anyways and went inside to work on something that I had wanted to work on for a while, but hadn’t taken the time to do so.
A couple hours and dinner later, I have listed several items for sale on ebay and it’s cool enough to start quilting again. The machine is on. I have a sample ready, run a couple lines…and we are back to normal speed. Thank God. I was able to finish that quilt and get the third top quilted that night. The machine worked like a dream the rest of the night. No more skipped stitches, no thread breaking. (Just a little variance of speed, but I can deal with that) I just need to do the binding. That will be finished this week and quilts will be delivered to their owners.
While I didn’t finish everything I wanted to last weekend. I made good progress on more things than I had originally anticipated. I was able to keep a good attitude through it all and not get frustrated. The peace of God and his grace surely were my companions for the day.
I am so thankful to have a God that meets the everyday needs. One that anticipates the needs and supplies even before we can ask. My God is so good to me.