Fireworks Anyone?

It's been an ummm... beyond crazy couple of days.  My sister eloped yesterday and caused a huge explosion of fireworks.  Since I live 13 hours away I missed most of it.  I spent yesterday helping my husband's family as some things came up while my parents dealt with the aftershock of it all.  I'm hoping things have calmed down some between both families. 

 I hope that her and her husband are very happy together.  He has a daughter that I know of and my sister has 3 kids.  The funniest part is that his last name is very similar to mine. His is Frederick and I'm Frerichs.  That's gonna mess up whomever does genealogy a hundred years from now.  It's going to mess up everyone in this time period too.

My book, "Vintage Garden" came and I spent some time looking through the designs and the quilt.  I'm thinking of doing mine in blues and yellows.  However; some rich reds would look lovely too.   

  

From Quilted with Love

I got my magazine today for the purse I fell in love with.  I don't know anything about the kind of embroidery on the purse, but it's stunning.   The hardest part seems to be the design.  The magazine had several beautiful projects.

From Quilted with Love

I've been quilting my horse as well.  I'm getting closer to getting done.  

YouTube Video On The Topaz

I did a quck video on the embroidery part of my Topaz 30.  My video and auditory skills are improving but the ummms and uhh's are still there. LOL.   


I ordered a Jenny Haskins book on Ebay today called "Aquamarine Ambience". I can't wait to get it.

It Works! Tension Is Working!!

Woo Hoo!  The embroidery part works on the Topaz!  No take-up lever problems!   I stitched out a quilt block using purple, yellow and green.  Not sure I like the green, but it stitched out beautifully.

From Embroidery Designs

I also got a new toy with the thread I ordered:

From Embroidery Designs

I use a lot of Madeira thread and they have a spool holder just for the spools.  It fits perfectly so the thread doesn't unwind under the spool.  It just fits on top of the universal one I have.  Way cool!  

Here's a picture of my Topaz stitching out the design:

From Embroidery Designs

Uprising Of The Sewing Machine

I think we are having an uprising of the sewing machines this week after reading several blog posts.  Skynet must be testing out a software program to see if it works before building a Terminator.  Some are eating thread.  Some are just refusing to work.  Another person is having tension issues.  Mine has decided to join in on the fun today big time.  

I decided to machine embroider a small purse.  I put the embroidery module on and hit the OK button.  It starts up with the arm, clears the space and gets stuck coming back up.  I hit the OK again and it won't move.  I turn off the machine and start again.  It works now so I set up the hoop.

I start embroidering and this horrendous noise starts.  I stop the machine and take off the hoop.  A HUGE wad of top thread is underneath.  Sigh.  Stupid top tension.  I clean out the bobbin area and start again.  Same problem.  I try again, checking thread paths and all the other stuff you are supposed to do before you call the dealer and it eats more thread.

I call the dealer.  She says to clean out the top tension discs.  I do that and start again.  No problems until I get to the satin stitch around the piece and it starts shredding thread. 

I start the 2nd piece and it seems to do okay until towards the end and then it starts to make the noise you get when the thread has come out of the take-up lever.  Yep.  The thread has come out.  3rd piece does just fine.

Being stubborn, I start to satin stitch the purse's sides together.  BAM!  The thread comes out of the take-up lever.   I've had enough.   

I called the dealer and she said to bring it in.  They are just backed up and she doesn't know when they will get to it.  Sigh.  Of course.  It's the uprising of the machines.  Curse you Skynet...

I pull out my Sapphire to satin stitch.  No problems.  

  

Hand Embroidery, Roses, And My Topaz Case

I feel a little better after whining about retreats.  

I got my package for the hand embroidery today!  Wow!  I can't wait to get started.  Those beads are so LITTLE.  I have visions of accidentally spilling them all over and watching them vanish into my carpet.  Do I wait until I get all the rose bud blocks done or just start?  I have 3 done.   

From Quilted with Love

Here's the mess with the rosebud blocks.  It's really more organized than it looks.

From Quilted with Love

This is where I could really use any reader input:

I haven't done any machine embroidery because it's such a pain to get out the embroidery unit.  It sits in this box behind the machine.  It's not heavy, just awkward as all the weight is on one side.  I knocked over my entire machine embroidery thread collection on the wall pulling it out one time.  I had to give up and put all the thread in a bin instead of on the wall.  

From Quilted with Love

Here's the embroidery unit in the box:

From Quilted with Love

Viking doesn't make a specific case for the Topaz embroidery unit.  I think they make a case set for the Diamond but I don't know if they can sell just the embroidery unit case.  The styrofoam case is 22.5 x23 inches.  The dealer on the Viking Topaz Yahoo! Group suggested making your own or finding a suitcase of sorts.  The suitcase would work if I could figure out padding to secure the unit. 

I still run into the problem of storing it.  Here's my sewing area:

From Quilted with Love

You aren't imagining it.  It's the kitchen.  You can see pulling the box in/out behind the sewing table isn't easy and I can't leave it out for everyone to trip over.  I really don't want to haul it up/down the basement stairs and through the garage to use it.  I wish I could just lay it flat instead of vertical.  Pulling it out would be much easier.      

So..  Any ideas?  I'll call the dealer in the morning and see if I can order the Diamond Case.  I just see mega dollar signs. 

Another Electronic Orgasm

The first electronic orgasm was my Ipod Touch.  I've wanted a Kindle 2 for the past week or so.  My house is really small and books take up so much space.  My husband's collection of hardback comic books takes up most of it.  LOL.  Men.  They never grow up.  Which for me is a good thing and I don't mind.

Back to the Kindle 2.  My concern is wireless connection.  Or possible lack of it.  And *cough* the price.  After getting a Yahoo! Answer back that I could just use my USB port to transfer books with the Kindle 2, it's more tempting.  Then....  I discovered I could download Kindle for FREE on my Ipod Touch.  Does it work?  You betcha.  I've downloaded a couple of books by err..borrowing someone's wireless internet that my Itouch has found when doing a scan.  Maybe I need to go wireless.  I don't like "borrowing" even if it is for less than 30 seconds. 

 *A couple of hours later after feeling guilty about borrowing someone else's wireless connection--  I followed the signal to a neighbor and said that I was getting wireless internet from her house and if she knew it.  I told her how excited I was to download some books from her service.  She started laughing and said it was okay.  I feel much better but hate to take someone else's connection.  I wish I could just download directly from Amazon right to my Itouch*

You can even get quilting books on Kindle.  Not great ones, but it's nice to know that.  Maybe I should email the companies and beg for them to put quilting books on Kindle.  

Back to more quilting/embroidery related subjects.  I got a box today!!  Woo Hoo!   Wanna see what I got?

From Quilted with Love

Enough bobbin thread to last a lifetime. Total yardage? 20,000. I bought some NEB prewound bobbins as they work too. The only catch is that the Topaz won't know to stop when you run out of thread. If I wind the bobbins on the Topaz bobbins, the machine stops. I love that there isn't a low bobbin sensor where you have to guess how much you have left.

Having real thread color cards is almost essential when doing machine embroidery. The software doesn't always transfer colors right especially if the digitizer uses a different format that you have to convert or a different brand of thread. Embird and 4D extra will convert threads for you. Embird does a better job of it. If you need to order thread, you have the numbers for easy ordering. What I hate is when companies charge outrageous prices for their thread charts..like 40 bucks. Forget it.

Anyway, it's been a good day.  

Art Nouveau Floral Square Block

Wow. Had I known this block would take 5.5 hours to stitch out, I don't know if I would have bought the entire set. However; the design looks FABULOUS. I love it. Here's the block:

From Embroidery Designs

If you want to see more detail, click on the picture.

It has 20 color changes and I think took 16-18 actual thread colors. I love my Viking Topaz. Now to decide if I want to do the other blocks. This is a lot of work.

Blackwork Quilt Top

From Blogger Pictures

I took Gina's advice and didn't add the sashing. I put blue around the quilt and I think it's looks stunning. I LOVE this quilt so far.

My plan is to add a white border with blue stitching going down the center. I've got a couple of designs on my Topaz that might work. Then to add another blue border to finish it off.

My Sister's Clutch Purse

I got my embroidery machine back yesterday and finished up stitching out the rest of the panels for a clutch purse.  The hard part is cutting away the fabric close enough to cover the edges with a satin stitch.  I have yet to master that skill and have bits of fabric between the satin stitching.  It's really frustrating.

I'm still figuring out iphoto as well.  It seems to publish to an online photo album but I can't find how to have the photos come here.  With Picassa you can just upload and put in an online photo right to Google.  

While the photo makes the color look red, it's actually a really pretty orange.  My sister LOVES orange.  I hope she likes it.

Ahh..figured it out!  You can download Picassa for Mac and it works with iphoto.  Cool!

Here's the inside of the bag:

 

From Blogger Pictures

Can you see where the satin stitching didn't work because I couldn't cut the fabric close enough?

Here's the clutch with the flap:

From Blogger Pictures

Here's where I could really use some help. I don't know how to keep the flap shut. Any ideas? The directions said to do it any way I wanted too. I thought of velcro, something in front, and that's it. I would love to do a strap of some kind, but don't know how to do that either.

I'll keep thinking about it.