Reflections

I'm sitting here tonight watching the election returns and reflecting on my first week with the new Millennium. I wish I could say how excited I am to have it and how wonderful it is, but that's not the case...yet. I am really hoping I will grow to love this machine, after all, I spent a fortune on it and would hate to be defeated by it. The first quilt went okay, trying out various block designs and having fun. Second quilt was a computerized pantograph. It also seemed to be smooth running on the machine. These were both charity quilts, already given to the guild in Blue Ridge for the homeless shelter.

remember this one? 

and this one?

I moved on to the first custom customer quilt, and all bets were off. The stitch in the ditch went well, ruler work: check! I free-motion quilted in the fan blades and sashings: check! In the open areas, I used a pattern from my computerized library, and only had to do a bit of picking where there was fullness in the border meeting the body of the quilt, not my fault, but my job to fix: check! The back looks good and the quilt was a success for the new machine and me.

Now, we get to the next quilt. A big Amish beauty with a white back (oh no!!) Seemingly, everything went wrong from the start. The computer froze several times and wouldn't release the carriage, as well as refusing to turn off. (I forgot it is a tablet, and has a battery back up...) I called tech support twice and computer tech support as well.Meanwhile, when I rolled the first bunch of quilting up, there were little knots in all the quilting! I did a tension check and saw the thread had jumped out of the counter. I don't think that affects the tension, but fixed it and moved on with more top tension to correct the problem. Roll two; same knots. Shoot me now! Screen freeze...tech call. In most places, I used computerized motifs, adding free motion quilting in the backgrounds and smaller areas. Less knots, more computer glitches. A quilt that should have taken one day to do had taken 6 days by the time I thought I had finished. The customer said on the phone that the quilt was a gift for someone who had admired my work , so I bit the bullet and picked out all four 111 inch borders and re-quilted them on the Gammill. (no problem there)I'm really not happy with the back, but the front is very nice.

111 x 11, this customer loves her friend!!

The re-sewn border

I have re-watched the videos for the computer, and am in the process of reviewing the on-line tutorials about the machine. It's hard not having a hard copy manual to look at, but I guess this is the wave of the future. The Windows OS is still Greek to me, and if the on board computer doesn't shape up and behave itself, I will be on the phone to the sales department to register my frustration and whine a little about the lack of a free class to better understand the Quilt Path program. There are very few of these classes offered throughout a year's time, all at far away places, at a substantial cost. Plus travel expenses! I have a business to operate, and can't be fighting with a computer to get things done.
Okay, I have ventilated my spleen, and will be back at the machine tomorrow, quilting another charity quilt to try to get the problems with the stitch and the computer figured out. I will not give up.
Mr Wazoo worked on customer quilts, getting two more ready to go home. Here is one of them, the other needs to have its picture taken tomorrow morning.

Autumnal jelly roll race

                                   

Appropriate panto: Forest Floor

This was yesterday night.. Mr W quilted it today.
I need to add quilted words to it tomorrow.

I worked a bit on the next round for my quilt in progress. The HSTs are sewn and I have one pile squared up. It takes some of the sting out of the longarm debacle.

Yup, they're two colors. The pattern called for blues and greens.
We'll see if I like that enough to leave them this way.

Molly wants her supper...