Learning is NOT waste!!

AHA --- I was wondering if I could cut out the good parts of that cutting mat, and YES, I can! I don't have time to do that now, but I'll work on that!!! Thanks for the tip!

Yesterday was another one of those days! I accomplished lots, but nothing that I can share with you yet! It's not like anything is a big secret, but I prefer to share what I'm doing with my clubs first, and then I can share it with you! And oh boy --- do I have some sharing to do!

Exciting stuff was happening, and I'm quite happy with the results. I had two embroidery machines working away, and everything I was stitching had been created by ME in the embroidery software. One was for my writing assignment, so even though I wasn't writing, I was advancing the project as I need something to write about! 

More work is needed to finish that project, but everything is going as planned! I find that the more you experiment and play, the easier it is to work on the project. You know what to expect and how to prevent bad things from happening before they happen! 

It's amazing how we are all different. Some people will ONLY do what they are told when it comes to an assignment, some will expand on the information and come up with their own ideas, and there are people in between. If I didn't have time constraints, I'd be on the extreme end of that spectrum, but I'm still doing pretty well at learning by trial and error!

I'm huge on making things up as I go along. I see over and over again that people need to make things EXACTLY like the original pattern. Why would I do that? I can direct my students to the original to see what the designer made, and then I can show them my own to promote creativity. I sometimes make things exactly like the pattern (same color, no changing it around), but it's rare that I do that. 

We had fun at the play date, and we made a sample using various products, deciding which ones we liked the best. I'll share that with you later, but it's going to be amazingly cute when it's finished. So we "wasted" some products—vinyl, stabilizers, and thread. It's NO BIG deal—we learned a ton of stuff while creating the sample. This is NOT waste—this is learning!!!! 

In a digital cutter class, I once had a lady say that she could NOT just cut random shapes for the sake of learning. That was wasteful. OK, so you cannot tell me that you don't have some hideously ugly fabric in your stash, so you could devote a fat quarter to learning to cut fabric on the digital cutter? Money is tight these days, but we can all spare a fat quarter for learning. 

What's hilarious (and sad at the same time) is that instead of learning to cut on the ugly stuff, people will forge ahead with the good stuff and mess it up. Go figure!!! 

I look at the cost of learning to embroider, sew, or use the digital cutter in relation to putting your kids through university. How much does tuition cost? How much are lab fees? Books? When we make a small sample or cut up a fat quarter, that doesn't even buy your kids breakfast in the cafeteria! 

As I was getting set up yesterday so we could work, I started the PFAFF creative icon 2 and added the embroidery unit. Hmmm -- this seems small compared to the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 3. So I got out the ruler. WOW. 

Shoot—it's a bit hard to tell in the photos, but from the hoop clip on the embroidery arm to the presser foot, the icon 2 has 14 inches. 

There are 14 inches on the creative icon 2

And there are almost TWENTY inches on the EPIC 3. That's an extra 6 inches!!!! No wonder the machine looks so big! I rarely take the embroidery unit off, it's so large, I can sew and quilt anything with it on! Although I'm careful to not jar it as I wouldn't want to damage the darn thing. 

There are almost 20 inches on the Designer Epic 3

I sorted my stabilizers into tubs a while back, and now I need labels. Hmm -- I could handwrite a label on a piece of tape, use my Brother label maker, or practice cutting vinyl with the digital cutter and see how that works. There is a bit of overflow in the stabilizer area, and I need to take one tub at a time, list what's inside the tub, and put that on the outside so I don't have to keep rifling through them to find something. 

I have a few different brands of stabilizers and roll widths, etc., and it would be nice to have that labeled to make it easier to find something. OH -- I know what else would be good. The rolls are in inches, yet the hoops are in mm, and I CANNOT figure out an easy way to translate them in my head. 

So, if I put an 8" roll of stabilizer X on my list and then the hoop size I can use it with, that would make it easy for my brain to equate imperial with metric and perhaps even learn to translate the sizes. 

I'm sure some of you have heard of Luke Haynes, but what an interesting person he is. Why do some people become "famous" and others don't? It happens in all industries. It's partially about being in the right place at the right time, and it's partially about self-promotion and luck. 

The one thing I know about this industry is that there is NEVER a moment to be bored! I have so much I want to learn, and I'm working my way through it all, but it seems that as fast as I learn, there is new stuff coming! And I have a new toy arriving this afternoon!!! I can't wait to see it, and I can share it with you tomorrow. 

I did a bit of spring cleaning in the backyard yesterday, and I was surprised to see so much stuff starting to grow! I had left my phone in the house and meant to go back and take pictures, but I forgot. It seems a bit early, but that's what's happening. I also noticed that someone has been digging in the backyard. There are little holes EVERYWHERE. I imagine it's skunks looking for bugs, and I didn't see a single bug while I was cleaning up. 

The ground is literally covered with these little holes! That's both in the front and the back. It looks like I've been out there tilling up the soil! I wonder if they do that to lawns? 

I'm down to three Zooms and one in-person event to round out the week. Next week is slightly quieter, with only 10 zooms, Monday sewing, and no in-person meetings! How fun will that be!

Well, I'm off to start the day. I see it's raining outside. Hmm—is it raining a lot or a little? I haven't checked it out yet. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!