Get ready, I'm back! It was the encoders.

Please dear friends, celebrate with me today.  I will be enjoying a big bowl of ice cream later on since I don't drink alcohol, but whatever way you choose to celebrate, please lift your glass, make a toast to my happiness!  I'm back in business!

I must have tries 74 things to get my quilting machine fixed and tried every suggestion thrown at me.  I was even willing to spend $800 to have a guy come out.  I'm glad I never could get ahold of him.

When I finally called the Viking Company and they led me on a wild goose chase, one of the leads did finally pay off.  The guy Richard, who knew nothing about my machine, said it had to be the encoders causing the problem.  The lady on my yahoo group had told me it wasn't the encoders and since she is the expert of the group, I had believed her for so long.  I didn't want to spend $90 each to fix a problem that for sure wasn't it so I have wasted the last 5 months chasing the wrong problem.

Sure enough, I got one encoder and it fixed the stitching in the y direction.  I figured if the y direction was fixed with one encoder, I needed to get the second encoder to fix the x direction (y goes up and down and x goes left and right on the machine) and I'd be back in business.  I didn't really want to spend the extra money, but I figured I was in it this deep already with the wires I had bought $40 each-the first set I was told by the 'expert' that were the wrong ones, so I got a different set, and when they came were exactly the same as the first 'wrong' ones.

So, moral of the story is...

If you break a wire on your long arm quilting machine, you will need to replace both encoders and the wires.  However, the good news is you can buy a complete set of encoders and wires for just around $200, instead of buying everything separately for $220 like I did.  And you don't have to wait 5 months and get frustrated and lose so much time away from a hobby you really enjoy, although it causes more frustration and anguish than it probably should.

Now that I'm back in business I might be able to dig myself out of all of the fabric that has been piling up around here and finish off a quilt I started for a dear friend who really needs a quilty hug.

Now that my machine is working again, I think about all of the stuff I should have accomplished while my machine was broken, like making backs for all of the quilt tops that are waiting, but I didn't so now that I'm ready to go, I'm not really ready at all!

At least I only have 34 days of school left and then it's summer vacation and I will have lots of time for cleaning and quilting.

Off to happy dance some more!