Current Mood : Soft pastel-like
Here it is, the Embroidery That Must Not Be Named. This would probably get me kicked off the SiCK forums, and possibly most other ME ones. But honestly, I'm kinda getting tired of them anyway. It's not that the folks aren't nice anymore - they're still really kind and helpful - it's just that between the religious signatures and the ‘we must help the owner again !' stuff, I'm getting tired.
Yeah, the SiCK owner-guy posted that he owes $62,000. in taxes (Canadian or US $, I don't know - the site's Canada-based), so he put everything on sale and added a bit of desperation to the place. I'm kind of surprised there isn't more butt kissing, like there was when he upped prices and slashed points, but the ‘help meeeee' message is still there (in two days, it's gone to $66,000.), and I'm getting tired of wondering why I don't feel sympathy for someone when I've spent more money on his site than any other. I'm sure he's a wonderful fella, but when I got folks preaching at me for even thinking of buying the ‘600 Disney designs for $40 ‘ discs off eBay (not that I have $40. right now anyway), and saying each small ‘free' design costs the provider at least $50. and probably more, well, I get tired of feeling guilty for enjoying what's out there.
And for this guy, much-loved fella that he is, clearly can't manage his business very well. I have, from various ‘hunts' and giveaways, amassed six pieces of various ten-piece design sets, for free. This doesn't encourage me to buy the set, when I already have over half of it. Much as I enjoy the hunt and the freebies, sometimes it seems like it's all he has to offer. And if he's intent on giving away the store, there's not a lot I can do. I spent as much there as I could, and there's literally nothing there I want. I spent over two hours there, trying to use my points, just to be done with the place, and I couldn't find anything I wanted, even when it's free.
Besides, every hour I spend there is an hour I have to find somewhere else, to actually sew something or clean up this mess around here. I don't need to bust my butt to earn points to buy stuff I don't want. I needed yet another wake-up call, and there it was.
Still working on laundry. Got four loads washed, dried, and sorted yesterday, and two more washed, including all the new fabric bits, hope to at least get the rest clean today. The laundry room is kind of tacked on past the back door, and I honestly believe the deck Beloved Hubby built last year was done better that it was. The window rattles in the frame - it's truly just a pane of glass in a metal sash. The least little breeze pushes it around, and I got tired of it today, so I literally stuffed a sock in it. One of Dearest Son's, damaged, shoved between the frame and the glass. Still rattles, but it's not that constant annoying tap-tap-tap all the time.
I rearranged all four thread boxes - the top one is embroidery-hopeful spools, the second is small spools, the other two are arranged by color. It kinda bites that I'm gonna be buying more thread when I already have this much, but when it's the wrong kind, there isn't much that can be done about it. Besides, I still have KJ to sew with, so it's not like three boxes of thread are a total waste. Oh, and guess what I found when I finally got all of KJ's bobbins together ? I'd been using two of Brody's type bobbins, years before I got Brody ! They probably came in a lot of thread, and they worked, so I used ‘em. That reminds me, I need to wind more for some stitch-outs I wanna do...
I also decided to clean the bobbin race on Brody. That's the sole maintenance I have to do on him. No oiling or nothin'. Only took about fifteen minutes, and that's with consulting the manual every thirty seconds. It's impressive how much lint was in there. I'm surprised he stitched as well as he did lately, ‘cause it's the first time I cleaned him ! Rolled up into a ball, the lint's the size of a baby pea. Most of it was under the bobbin case. The reason most folks give for not using other off-market products in their embroidery machines is fear of lint. Um, it took me maybe five minutes to clean mine, when you take off all the manual study. I'll just clean it after each project, and it should be fine. Not like I'm embroidering a six-foot-wide tapestry here. Think I'll invest in a can of air, keep it in the Lab. Should help.
The cover that Brody came with is nice, but with KJ in the dining area, I leave his embroidery platform attached. And the cover doesn't come near to protecting that ! So, until I find another way to store the platform, I've got the whole thing draped with a large piece of fabric. It's really dusty around here, and it's better than no cover at all.
Once he was nice and clean, I wanted to stitch. So, I pulled out the variegated pastel thread I bought years ago and pulled up a downloaded version of my name. Never sewed that before, just my initial that one time. Evidently, I put the bobbin race back together very well - no snags or snarls at all. But I seriously lack putting-the-needle-back-in skills, because it fell out while it was stitching. Twice. I'm astonished that the needle didn't break or even bend, it kept trying to sew without it. Now I know that finger tightening isn't enough, I need to use the screwdriver Brody came with to get it in there good.
Had to back up a bit because of the missed stitches, and it was then I noticed that I hadn't ever tried the resize functions, or the flip/mirror. So once my name was done - with no thread changes, it didn't take long, and even looked pretty good in the soft pastels - I did it again, at the bottom of the hoop, shrinking it a bit. Came out pretty well, but it skipped a few stitches for no real reason - maybe resizing it did something to the design. After that, I pulled up Beloved's name, moved it to the top of the hoop, and flipped it, so it stitched upside down. Fun to watch ! Of course, his came out the best, since I hadn't resized it, and no needles sprang free. And I remembered once it was done that he said he hated that font. Oh, well.
What makes it funnier is that I used a rag. Literally. It was an old navy-blue t-shirt that was recycled as a cleaning rag, and it went through the wash today. One side had bits of paint on it, but the ‘wrong' side didn't, so I used that. Now I know I can embroider on knits - thick ones like sweatpants, or thin ones like t-shirts. Wheee !
