A sad day for sewing

Today was a great Saturday. It started with pancakes for breakfast and just got better from there: beautiful weather; hanging out with my hubby, wonderful baby, and friends; and food trucks and Ted Drewe's for dinner. It was also going to be a great day for sewing: some rare free time on my hands, not to mention the hockey playoff game tonight that Matt wanted to watch but which I was free to skip.

After finishing up a gift for a friend yesterday, I even had plans to finally get back to working on my Early Bird/Kitchen Window quilt. I sat down to get started, but when I went to change out my needle, this happened:

 Don't see the problem? How about now?

Yep, that's my needle, broken and stuck in the machine. I loosened the screw that holds the needle in, but the needle was completely stuck in there (something that's never happened before, and I have no idea what caused it). I tried to work it free with a pair of needle-nose pliers, and that's when the bottom part broke off. Matt even got in on the fun but only succeeded in stabbing his finger and pinching his palm between the pliers.

So now it's time to call in the professionals, which probably isn't the worst thing. I've had my machine for almost two and half years now and have never had it serviced, so a check-up was way overdue anyway, but it really stinks that it had to happen today, just when I finally had some time to sew. Sigh.