Aaaargh!

After two weeks of vacation I had to start back to work today. I finished the top to the Sprinkles quilt but I didn't have a twin-sized batting to finish it and I was feeling pretty frustrated that I didn't actually FINISH anything during my time off. We needed a new bag for our Scrabble tiles and I decided that was just what I needed - a teeny-tiny project that I could finish in one evening. I've never actually sewn a zippered pouch before but I didn't think it would be too hard.














This is my machine after I ran over the zipper and broke my needle. I've opened it up to try to find the part that broke off. No luck with simple looking, or waving around a magnet to try to draw it out of the mechanical depths, so I pull out the compressed air. Maybe it's clinging to some of the clumps of lint inside?















I blasted out an alarming amount of lint, but no needle, so I try to remove the metal plate that's under the face plate by turning the only visible screw.














This is me after I realize that the screw isn't a screw-screw (as in, it doesn't appear to hold two things together) but is more like a set-screw which just keeps turning and turning and, I'm afraid, is only there to screw with the tension. Many thanks to Alan for photographing my misery.















And here I am finding the broken needle attached to the underside of the sewing. Aaaargh! I got everything reassembled and tried to sew, but the needle wouldn't go down into the bobbin area. When I tried cranking it by hand it felt really. . .tight. My horrible suspicions about the mysterious screw appear to be confirmed. I look it up in the manual but the screw is never identified. I mess with it and the problem seems to be getting worse. I mess with it in the other direction and it doesn't seem to make any difference. I keep turning it backwards and eventually give up and turn the machine off and let it "rest" for a little while. When I turn it back on everything works fine and I finish the &*%$#@! project. Happy New Year!