Current Mood : Doubtful
Current Image Notes : Time to sew !
Today, I embroidered ! You'll get to see my special snowflake tomorrow - I just wanted to finish the 'Shinobu's Sewing Room' photos. And since the SiCK site has completely revamped its points system as of this afternoon, I'll have more time to do so. It's fine, it was a free incentive anyway, and I was waaay too obsessed with it, even I knew that, but it was kind of a whizzer. They cut the points, then got on the forum to explain, too late - the denizens had already discovered the changes and were heatedly discussing. Site owner said too many people had too many points, no kidding - the program was in place for ten days shy of three months, and one frequent flier had amassed over 33,000 ! So now, you can stay up 24-7, and unless you post a lot on the forum, have about 27 points a day to show for it. I was routinely harvesting 75 a day, which required some dedication, but allowed for sleep.
It just kind of bugged me that the owner said too many folks were getting free sets and not buying any. Um, well, I bought about 30 dollar sets, and earned one free one. If I'd have paid full price for the sets I bought, it would have been five sets, with one free, so I don't think it was me causing the problem. And really, it shouldn't have taken a few people earning enough for 80+ sets in less than 80 days to tell the guy his business model was a bit off.
Still, ya can't whine too much when the free gravy train stops. You know it won't go forever when you're lucky enough to get on one. I just find his reasoning a bit odd - he blames the economy when his ‘recent sales page' is constantly refilling, there's ads on every download page, he has a thriving eBay trade, and there's over 4000 paying members. If he wants to cut freebies, that's fine and it's his right to do so, but ya can't blame folks for taking what ya offer for free. And then blame the economy.
So. Now that I'm not constantly over there, I can break away and actually use some of what I've downloaded over the past few weeks. I've even made up a list of things I haven't attempted yet. I thought this week, I'd try to load a 5-inch by 7-inch design. Brody can only embroider a four-inch square. I also wanted to check on those two unidentifiable mystery designs. Yesterday, I got my desk all cleaned off, so I could bring in Brody for new designs. Today, I loaded the two mysteries - one was a duplicate, the other was still a question, so I downloaded that one and deleted the dupe.
I also decided I wanted to try to stop Brody before a design was complete, to see what would happen. The elephant book clip seemed perfect for that, so I loaded it up, too. And while I was at it, it occurred to me that I hadn't given feedback for a set I purchased, so I loaded one of those. Thank Everything I wrote down my directions, because I'd nearly forgotten how to get a design in memory !
The mystery design was bugging me - I knew it was a snowflake, but which one ? Well, no time like the present ! It was busily humming away at a twelve-point image when the bobbin ran out of thread. Whoops ! I loaded the last bobbin I had loaded, and it wasn't very much. Can't use the ones that I have for KJ, they're different sizes. Predictably, it ran out, too, with stitching still to go. Yikes. Now what ?
Well, about all I could do was cut threads, note where it stopped to reset it after, remove the embroidery platform, wind the bobbin, and reinstall and restart the embroidery. One small problem - evidently, your small, giveaway designs don't come with either thread charts or thread counts. So I had no idea where the stitching stopped. Not much I could do but keep going. Made two bobbins from other thread, and found that, by holding the ‘needle +' selector, the needle would retrace the design, and I could stop it where I thought we left off, and begin to sew there. Cool !
Since I had no idea when stitching would be over since I had no image of the design, it should come as no surprise when I ran out of top thread, too. At least that was easier to fix ! Found a similar color, and soon, it was done. Not a bad little snowflake ! And I've learned quite a bit from it. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it right now, but I took a photo, for my own reference. It's got some errors - I tried to hand-fix a spot where I forgot to back the needle up - but on the whole, it's not bad at all.
Oh, and as for trying to load a too-big design - Brody simply won't do it. It'll go down the USB pipeline, but won't be stored even in temp memory. If I want to use the big designs, I'll have to learn to split ‘em. And I'll need a bit more experience before tackling that task ! But, it's two items off the Schedule of Efforts !
Tomorrow - stopping a design before it's done - on purpose this time ! - and using wash-away stabilizer to baby-step into free-standing lace projects. All of that will come into play for the elephant book clip, and if there's time left, I'm gonna try to stitch out a dress form from a purchased set.
I have so much time now. I really should thank the site owner and the economy for the liberation !
