Current Mood : Stomachache. Ooogh.
Well, last night was interesting. I didn't want to start on DMIL's bag front, even though I got the newest designs installed into Brody's memory, and deleted the ones I've already done. One of the new designs was a wall clock that'd be great in a doll background, but it had several elements I didn't like - a ‘wall' behind it, permanently set hands (I wanted to use real watch hands I could adjust), and some odd ‘motion lines', for some reason. It was on of my ‘Schedule of Efforts' list... could I skip a step (also known as a ‘stop') of stitching ? It was still early enough, and I had time to play a bit...
And I was also kinda proud that I'd never really had a total disaster embroidering, not since the very first initials I tried with Brody. Everything else, even my ‘trial' stitch-outs were good enough to be used for something. Mostly because I got good at salvaging the errors and problems !
Well, that fell last night. And my hand still hurts. This is why - that blasted hoop gave me fits. A simple hooping took over a half hour. Just as it got the right tension, and the fabric was nice and flat and taut, sproing ! The nut would spring back about a half inch and there went whatever tension I had. Ya can't embroider on anything that loose. So I'd tighten it again, and... after about twenty minutes of that, I'd about had enough. But I also had it juuuuust right. You know where this is going, don'tcha ?
You guessed it. Zxsproing !! I pounded the poor sewing desk hard in frustration. And that's why my right hand is still a bit tender today. I swear, Saturday, if it takes me all day long, I am replacing that blasted nut ! If I can't, I'm calling Brother and let them deal. After about ten more minutes of swearing and clawing the air, I got it secure.
And it was nice and tight...for about thirty seconds. Then it sproinged again on me, while it was in the machine. The fabric buckled and puckered. And it did so with such unbelievable strength, it somehow frayed the thread and broke it. Aaarrrgh. I re-threaded, but there really wasn't any point in trying to salvage the design. Which was good, because then the bobbin thread wasn't picking up either. (colossal sigh)
Ended up stuffing a bit of tape into the side of the tunnel where the nut goes. This time the bloody thing held. Beloved Hubby says he sometimes has to do that, and it's not gonna damage anything. Well, by hook and by crook, I finally got the first step/stop done. And the second one, the ‘wall' part, was the one I didn't want. It was then I noticed something right above the ‘+ / - needle' icons that control adding or subtracting stitches, so you can back up or fast forward after a problem's been resolved. It's just that these were ‘+ / -‘ spools of thread ! Could it be that simple ?
Yup. If I just wanted the clock face and numbers, and nothing else, it was doable. And simple. And I read the manual ! I have no idea why that didn't register then. Possibly because I didn't have enough experience to understand then. Despite the stitched-out disaster, this was great news ! I could further customize some designs I have, easily.
Of course, it was then that I realized, I probably could have used the ‘+ needle' button to fast-forward past that first step without sewing a stitch, and still gotten an answer to my query. D'oh !
Anyway... with all that behind me, I sat down today with a bit of trepidation to sew DMIL's bag front design, a happy kitty with flowers. A simple ‘country' type design, not real complicated, but I was still nervous. And this time, that *&^% hoop, paper wad notwithstanding, still refused to tighten. So I chucked it over my shoulder, vowing to go out tomorrow or Saturday to end its little reign of terror, and grabbed the new hoop.
(blissful sigh) It's nice... took me about 35 seconds to hoop the fabric and stabilizer, and be on my merry little way. And it came out well, too. I used two of the new spools of thread - and I need to correct m'self. When I bought ‘em, I got a pretty lavender, not another grey. I already have four shades of grey, no reason to buy a fifth. I didn't have lavender, though, and it's also on my DMIL's favorite colors list, so I snagged that, figuring I could always use it. You'll see that one tomorrow.
I know why I hadn't yet used the big hoop. After having so many problems with the little one, I was half-convinced I'd wreck it, too. But I'm glad I put aside the fear and went with it before I seriously damaged my hand. It occurred to me that I could use the ‘big hoop' nut to test my theory on the ‘little hoop' screws, but I don't want to. I'll get the little hoop problem fixed in the next day or two, and I don't wanna risk my good one.
So tomorrow, unless I work on ‘em tonight after Dearest Son beds down, I just have to assemble the bags, run a drawstring through ‘em, and they're done. Since I'll see DFIL first, when he picks up Dearest, I'll probably store DMIL's inside his, and hand it to him. I can't wait to see his reaction. He has no idea I can do Betty Boop designs ! He's gonna go into orbit if I show him that site that has about 60 BB designs for sale. Too bad several repeat, and it's about $60. for the whole set. You know me, I'd rather spend $3. each for the six I like than spend $20. for 30, most of which I'll never use !
Since the made-for-bobbins thread is working so much better for Brody and me, I rewound the cone thread onto bobbins for my KJ machine, which freed up the Brody bobbins. So I now have three white bobbins for KJ, and three good ones for Brody. I swear, though, if I ever find black bobbin thread, I'm gonna buy a parsec of it !
I still had the stitch bug, so I took Brody's USB and General manuals outside to wait for the bus. No answers on my latest questions - can you ‘mirror' any design in memory, or just the built-in ones, and is it possible to even upload designs bigger than your stitching area ?- but it was still time well spent. Re-reading the ‘skip a color' directions made more sense now. Back when Brody still had packing tape on him, I thought ‘skip a color' meant you wanted to use green when the pattern "required" blue ! No joke, I briefly believed that the design called for the colors used, and good luck changing ‘em. You had to change a setting or something. And, since most embroiderers call those ‘steps' or ‘stops', not ‘colors', I can see where I lost the thread. (ha-ha).
So I came back in, had an ice cream sandwich with Dearest, and pulled up the Barbie Silhouette appliqué design. If there was ever one I wanted to mirror, it was this one. And - yes ! It flips, mirrors, rotates, you name it. Today's faces right, and I even made it a bit bigger, but only by about a couple millimeters. I used the pale pink still in Brody from DMIL's bag design, and a beautiful starry fabric. I taped it nice and flat, and it looks pretty darn good. You'll get to see it day after tomorrow !
Lunch today was odd, but tasty ! We had spaghetti last night, and I combined the leftover noodles with leftover Monday dinner, chili. Add a bit of water, and chili noodle soup ! I know, that sounds weird, but even Campbell's used to make Chili Beef soup. When it got discontinued, I bought out the one store that carried it before Beloved Hubby gently pointed out that, if I really wanted chili soup, I'd just need to add some water to any can of chili. (facepalm) And adding pasta isn't too weird, at least for me. When I was in college and had friends over, we often dined on ‘hash' - a can of Hormel chili with a cup or so of cooked rice mixed in, garnished with cheese or hot sauce, your choice ! Honors students got to live in honor houses, complete with kitchens, and sometimes even my hash was better than what the dining halls were dishing up.
