I've had my little Janome about 7 years or so and absolutely love it. I love my machine, I've not thought about replacing her. I figured out I cannot FMQ anything bigger than 36 x 45 on it, but it does SID fine with the walking foot. I mostly quilt by hand anyway. It's a Janome 415. No computer or computerized stuff on it. It does basic stitching and has a few decorative ones. I use all my quilting feet on it. It's so easy to use.
So after that premise....here's what happened. Out of nowhere, my machine started acting up. In the middle of stitching, I had my foot on the foot pedal and it just stopped. No whirring noise, no anything, no movement, no grinding, no noise at all. It was like the power was off but the light was on. I took my foot off, but it back on again, it went two stitches and did it again. It did this for 2 days. I figured, if I stomped on the foot pedal much more, I was going to break the machine. Then the thread started breaking. It would stitch 2 stitches or so, stop completely, then the thread would break.
I completely rethreaded it, replaced the bobbin, pulled all the metal crap under the bobbin out, cleaned and oiled it. Then I pulled the rubber stoppy thing of the side of it, took that part off, and brushed lint in the part of the machine that the thread goes through. That still didn't work. I put my machine away for a few hours, cause it took me that long to find a manual...then I pulled it all back out again.
The machine seemed to have known I pulled out the manual because it's sewn like a dream since. The problem stopped as quickly as it started. I won't tell you what I told my machine, or threatened her with. This is a nice family board and it's not meant for that type of language. :)
Do any of you know what could have happened to it? She's not due for another service until June. I really don't want to have to take her in. They take a few days for diagnostic stuff and I can't be without my machine that long at the moment. I strategically plan a lull in my machine work to accommodate her servicing. I need her to work too much right now. And I don't have a backup, but that will end up being another thread should I decide I need a backup.
What do you all think?