Long Time – No Post

I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing!  I have been trying to kill off my new quilting system.  At first it was a blast, then I ran into some problems.  Now I am frustrated …

This is the lovely kid’s quilt that I did with the instructor by my side.  I had a few of the usual – thread breaks, start and stop, but those were valuable learning experiences.  Glad the instructor was here to walk me through it all.  We finished it up and it looks fantastic. 

 

Maybe you can see the butterfly and swirls!

The next day, I loaded up another kid’s quilt:

I picked a different quilting pattern and calculated out the repeats and set it up.  Easy-peasy.  I love this quilting system!  It was stitching beautifully through the first repeat … then the thread broke - I thought it was a simple fix - I learned that yesterday, didn't I?  But instead,  I hit the troubles from Hades.   It would not go back to the correct starting point.  Bummer.  Learning curve turned upside down.  I tried to correct it a hundred times.

Finally, I unplugged the computer and checked the machine itself.  It was being erratic – would appear to be running but the needle wasn’t moving up and down.  Bigger bummer.  It would be set in constant mode, but acted like it was in stitch regulated mode.  Biggest bummer.  Called the instructor.  Got a fix. 

Fix worked temporarily.  Got eyelashes from the bobbin threads.  Easy fix.  NOT.  I changed the bobbin, I changed the tension, I changed the needle, I changed my clothes (hey! It was worth a try…) – nothing works well now.  Needs a new switch in the handle, but I think there are multiple operator errors occurring from my trying to fix it.  Gotta wait for the instructor to come over and set it back to square one.   Oh well.

So meanwhile I try to fit in a few walks.  So much rain has caused lawn service companies fits (and I thought I had troubles) – see the high grass here as this little cattle egret hunts for lizards:

And we’ve had some spectacular sunsets:

And things are blooming:

So things can’t be THAT bad!

I finished up my kits for Quilts Beyond Borders:

They’ll be in the mail on Monday.  So, as soon as the instructor comes and whips this little operator into shape again, I'll be back to Happy Land.