Not easily intimidated

but.

A couple of months ago, I came across this nifty pattern on Craftsy.  Like many, I’m a sucker for a good bag pattern and this one seemed to be super-useful for not only carrying a sewing (art?) kit but for holding it all together in use too.

I watched the video demonstration here and thought that it was something I wanted to make, so I bought the pattern and noted the ingredients.

I wasn’t in a particular hurry but took the opportunity to buy a cheap bundle of fat quarters in JoAnns when we were in the USA, plus all the zips, interfacing and so on.  In the meantime, Mary had got the pattern as well and together we discussed the clever design. Mary asked if I’d noticed how detailed the instructions are, but bearing in mind that Craftsy mark it as a beginner project, it shouldn’t be too tricky, should it?

With a day at home and having completed my responsibilities this morning, I thought I’d make a start.  It’s a while since I downloaded the pattern though and the perfectionist in me wanted to make sure I cut the right piece from the right colour.  For, although this was going to be a mish mash of colours, I did want some control!

I went to the sewing patterns folder on my pc and opened it up. I thought I’d better print it out before I began, so I could tick off the various stages.

Oooer.  Now I understood why Mary had referred to the detailed instructions. 

82 pages!

Of course, I wasn’t going to print all that out.  I skimmed through to see what I needed and printed out the cutting list, hoping to identify which bit I needed to cut from each colour.  I still wasn’t sure though, so watched another video (or four) with a step by step guide to what goes where (and how it’s constructed)

My free afternoon was disappearing fast!

Now totally at a loss as to where to start, I considered just cutting the pieces and winging it!  I could hear my Mum’s voice though – no, don’t spoil it.  Do it properly.

But here we are, almost 4.30pm and I haven’t so much as made a snip in any fabric let alone threaded my machine.  I was about to make a start when I spotted an update and pattern errata on the website so watched the updated YouTube video which has some further refinements – not that I’ve really got to grips with the original version yet.

Whilst I commend the designer for her detailed and carefully thought out pattern instructions, I’m beginning to wonder where “enough” might be.  Of course, those 82 pages contain a lot more than the straightforward step by step instructions; in fact, there’s a pattern for another small accessory in there as well as a good deal of commentary.  But all in all, I’m overwhelmed by the whole thing.  Perhaps there’s a cause for the simple, basic pattern to be outlined, so that those of us who would just like to dive in and make it can do exactly that.  Having done that, we might have enough of an understanding that we could then consider refinements and a better way of doing things.

So there we are, an afternoon being busy doing nothing.

I need a lie down.

It took time

Remember this?  Since having a few interesting and really useful conversations with my Bernina friends, I’ve wanted to revisit the project and though I’ve tried a couple of times something has cropped up and got in the way.

Though my mouse mat tells me I’m a digital design and technology goddess, I’ve felt little of the sort as I’ve struggled not only with the Bernina software but in getting any sort of precision with my mouse.  Any attempts to get my Wacom tablet and pen to play nicely have come to nothing but both my hero and I were determined to get it going.  I’m always loathe to take the easy route and buy new when to all intents and purposes there’s nothing wrong with the old one.

Except it wouldn’t work!

This morning, as a last ditch attempt at getting somewhere, we left a message on the Wacom help forum, outlining the issues as we saw them and hoping there’d be a workaround.  It seemed as though the touchscreen controls of my new PC were getting in the way of the Wacom drivers and if only they could suggest how to override them, then all would surely be well?

Except the reply came back quickly to say that my tablet and pen were too old and no longer supported.  Huh?  I didn’t think they were that old!  But maybe, in computer terms, old has a different definition.  The only suggestion they could make was to try one of their old drivers designed for Vista and Windows ME.  They didn’t hold out much hope but if all else failed they had a bright and shiny new policy which would allow me to trade in my old Wacom for a new one.

Would the genie come free, do you think?

Whilst I got some lunch, I left my hero to download more drivers, uninstall the previous ones, reboot my PC several times over and try, try, try again.  He came upstairs with a frown, because nothing was working so far.  It looked like I was going to have to buy a new one and hope that it would work in spite of those touchscreen conflicts.

After lunch, he returned to the studio to try the one last, remaining driver and as I faffed about in the kitchen, I heard a loud cheer!  After two weeks of messing about with the thing, fiddling about with all manner of settings on the PC and almost – almost – giving up, it worked.

I lost no time in getting back to the project in hand and armed with the combined knowledge I’d gathered in from my friends over the last couple of weeks, I began to draw.

The drawing complete and saved (several times along the way, just in case), I took it over to the machine and left it to sew.

Though it’s still not perfect – will it ever be so? – it’s so much better than the first prototype.  I decided not to change colour at each stage, but to keep it simple and use the one variegated thread throughout.

Gradually, over the next thirty or forty minutes, the design took shape.  In particular, I was pleased with the way in which the small pebbles stitched out because those had posed a definite challenge first time around.  Thanks to my clever friends, however, I was able to work out a way of stitching them out far more smoothly and learned to work in a slightly different way to get the right result.

I feel quite happy with the end result once I’d cut some of those long jumps of thread and though I don’t suppose I’ll do anything with it for a while, I think I can claim “mission accomplished” on that one. 

Rosy glows of achievement all round today, then. 

We got there in the end.

The best laid plans

The plan was to continue working on this feather wreath design today.  I’ve been having such interesting and useful conversations with my Bernina friends and have so many new ideas to put into practice.  I made sure I was up to date with my work yesterday afternoon so that a whole day lay open in front of me this morning.  I looked forward to reworking those little pebbles and to refining that heavily stitched ring and opened the Bernina software ready to go.

But my Wacom tablet stared me in the face and had different ideas.

I’d been trying to resolve one or two difficulties with it recently.  I’d uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, been quite a frequent visitor to the Wacom Support Forum and eventually left the thing in the capable hands of my Technical Support department whilst I soldiered on using my mouse.  Today, though, I was determined.

But once again, my Wacom tablet and my computer had different ideas.  Though the green light was on, no-one seemed to be home.  Tech Support persisted and tried several more strategies but still no joy.

So I decided to install the new portable hard drive we bought for our baby laptop, transfer a few photos, install some program updates and suchlike.

The view from around here is a bit like this.  Not quite what I planned or hoped for.  Whilst one computer quietly updated itself, the postman brought a prompt for the other one.

Well, 20% off a new dress and matching cardigan for my holidays meant I could get a little bag as well, didn’t it?

In the meantime, my hero went to the post office and we gave up on the Wacom .  For now.

A day’s work

There’s been a four part series on the Bernina blog, about machine quilting and painting a feather wreath.  Of course, it’s “my” colours, so hit all the buttons and I bookmarked it in my brain, thinking I’d have a go at it sometime.  But recent trials of my free machine quilting skills have not gone so well and I really doubted my ability to create such a beauty, so I’ve hung fire a while.

But just a minute.  Haven’t I got some rather clever software in which I could draw out such a design and stitch it automatically?  Couldn’t I use a little practice in using that software, since the arrival of the cutwork and other clever things have overshadowed it of late?  I thought about it for all of five minutes and with a day at home, I cracked on right away this morning.

I started by drawing it all out in Photoshop and importing the drawing to the Bernina software, but then had a “duh” moment and started again.  This time, I drew a single feather loop and used the “wreath” tool to create the circular pattern.  Clever!  (the software, not me!)

I used the wreath tool several times more, each time finding it a really powerful means of creating an even, symmetrical design.  I watched the “slow redraw” several times and was fairly happy with what I saw…except it did sew out in a strange order, and I wasn’t sure how to correct that.

By about four o’clock I was ready to begin stitching.  Yes, really, it had taken me almost the whole day to create the design – so much for those who think we just “press a button”!  I could wait no longer and just had to give it a try out.

Having stitched it, I got the Markal paintstiks out and chose a couple of colours.  I wasn’t too worried about colour by now – just wanted to get it done!

By five o’clock, I was ready to set the colours with the iron and sit back.

Sit back and look a little closely at all the small things I wish I’d done differently, that is.  It’s not bad as a starting point but it needs more work; of that I am certain.

Bernina machine embroidery friends (you know who you are!), prepare for the arrival of an email with a small attachment shortly.  I’m hoping that you will be able to bring your skills and experience to the party and show me where I went wrong!!

Sometimes, more brains are better than one.

With renewed determination

I opened the Designworks software this morning to complete the next exercise, the Cutwork Border Design.  The objects of this exercise were:

• Working with Create Shape tools
• Circular Array
• Horizontal and Vertical Alignment
• Sequence Manager
• Tips for sewing out

Hmm, I could have used those last tips before now, but hey, I’m starting the project with a positive frame of mind and an air of confidence!  I created a new file and began the exercise, starting by drawing a circle with a diameter of 15mm and a 15.6mm x 13mm trapezoid below it.

Bearing in mind the relative sizes of those shapes and that the design fits in a hoop which is 255mm x 145mm, how would you interpret the instruction to adjust the positioning of the trapezoid so that it’s centred 73cm below the circle outline?   Yes, I imagine that, like me, you thought “oops, typo there” and made it 73mm instead?  But a little further consideration and I realised the most sensible measurement was 7.3mm.  Not one typo but two for the price of one!

But it didn’t end there.  The next row of shapes was to be positioned .5mm from the previous row.  Now, I admire precision, but .5mm?  I think that was supposed to be 5mm.

(I thought the Swiss were pretty accurate in such things but I’m beginning to reassess)

By now, I was getting used to the typos and the inconsistencies, so I immediately adjusted the instruction to position one small shape 5cm away from the tip of the trapezoid to 5mm, but with each mental adjustment, I lost a little more confidence in the likelihood of a successful outcome.

Anyway, I completed the design, so I saved it and exported to the USB stick.  It was my intention to cut it several times from the same fabric but to vary the starch/stiffening method to identify which worked best.

Having cut it once, however, my plans were revised.  Once again, the end result was sub-optimal though actually, the cutting of the shapes had been pretty accurate and rather neater than the photo above suggests.  What made it look especially raggy was the satin stitches on the edges – or just off the edges in some areas.

I thought I could do better.

Firstly, I created a smaller design to fiddle about with.  What’s more frustrating than watching a huge shape being stitched out having recognised within the first five minutes that it’s not going to work as hoped?  So, I used the basic idea in the Bernina workbook to create something similar and worked my way through it whilst thinking carefully about the suggested settings.  Where the exercise stated a cutting offset of 0mm, I made sure the stitching line was offset by 1mm so the machine didn’t stitch in thin air.  I created a wider satin stitch around the cut areas and watched the “slow draw” of the design very carefully to make sure the edges were going to be covered.  I included a couple of extra passes around the shapes to create a stronger edge to each cut out area and held my breath as it stitched out.

The end result isn’t perfect but it’s far better than before and I feel that at last, I’m getting somewhere.

My problem lies with the prescriptive instructions in the workbook, from which I’m supposed to learn how to create successful designs and understand how to manage the settings.  I don’t learn well from being told to “set x at 0.5mm” without an accompanying explanation of why I’m setting it at 0.5mm and not 0.7mm….that’s assuming there isn’t a typo in that instruction anyway. Without an explanation of these settings how can I understand why it might be better in some cases to adjust x or y depending on the fabric/the design/whatever.  By simply following the step by step instructions slavishly, I learn nothing except confirm that I can follow a sequence of written instructions – something I’m pretty confident about already.

So, as the afternoon draws to an end, I feel that I am getting somewhere at last and I’ve learned a fair bit.  Mostly, that is to ignore the workbook and use my own experience/common sense to work it out for myself!