A STUPENDOUS day

Ever have one of those days when everything goes right? They don't happen often, but yesterday was one of those days. Even though I forgot to do two things which gave me a nightmare last night. I dreamt that I had arrived at an event and had forgotten to pack samples. I had nothing - I don't think I even had my suitcase. Weird!

Let's just say that some things could have gone wrong - very badly, but I was on top of my game. I was merrily quilting a quilt that had been given to me by Quilts of Valour.

The robot got to the end of the row and I ran over to it and hit "advance to next row". Only to realize that the bobbin had run out partway across. Oh, shoot!!!

That was the bad news. The good news is that I know how to easily fix this. Go back to the previous row where I'll manually reset the pattern. The best news? I managed that reset the pattern PERFECTLY.

Can you see the restart??? 

Trust me - I've gone through a huge learning curve to figure that out. But it's done and I can move onto other things - like upgrading the darn system. I've been trying to do the upgrade since December, but I think I missed the deadline yet again. I MUST check that date today.

Then I turned on the Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 2 so I could finish my UFO homework.

OH NO - some amazing new designs came through on the blog. You see, when you turn on the sewing machine, you get to see the blog. And once a week, new stuff comes through the blog. It could be embroidery designs (if you subscribe to the mySewnet library), or sewing instructions or what's new or other things.

New stuff in the mySewnet blog

Yes - all this gets delivered right to the EPIC 2 since it's connected to the WiFi. No need for USBs or cables or wasting time - just get to it! BUT before I could do anything that was on the blog, I HAD to get some work done on my UFO.

I love using decorative stitches for applique. One of the challenges is knowing where you are in the stitch sequence, especially if you've done a sample stitch-out of the stitch. Well, no worries with the EPIC 2 as it has Stitch Re-start (don't you just love those ORANGE buttons?) By pressing that button, the EPIC 2 goes back to the beginning of the stitch sequence of whatever stitch I've chosen. This is just the best!!!!

Stitch Re-start function

 I choose a stitch and then got to work on the LAST block for my UFO.

Stitching around the flower shape

And there it is - the last block. I'm not going to show you any more of this project until after the UFO group meets tomorrow. Will I get my homework completed? Will I do more??  You'll have to wait to see what happens.

The last block in the UFO

Then I decided to be bad and stitch out that poodle. I took a few minutes to attach the embroidery arm, found some fabric, threads, and some organza ribbon. That poodle is in the embroidery library that you can subscribe to through your mySewnet account. I grabbed some organza ribbon and wound it onto the Ribbon Embroidery Attachment. Then I checked how much ribbon was required. OH - I don't have enough. WAIT! I have another bag with ribbon - I bet I have some white organza ribbon in that bag. Yep, but that piece wasn't quite long enough. Now what?

I improvised and sewed the two pieces together.

Sewing the two pieces of organza ribbon together

I then wound all the ribbon onto the Ribbon Embroidery Attachment. Set up for embroidery and let the DESIGNER EPIC 2 do its job. I could then monitor it on the MySewMonitor app on my phone. I know - the technology is crazy. But when you think about it - there are so many advancements in technology to everything - cars, TVs, phones - why not the sewing machine???  It makes total sense.

Once the supplies were gathered and the machine set up - I hit START. 

Embroidering the body

Once the body was done, it was time to add the fluff! I attached the Ribbon Embroidery Attachment to the EPIC 2 and hit start.

What the ribbon embroidery looks like

And that big thing is the Ribbon Embroidery Attachment.

The ribbon embroidery attachment

So while the long arm was working (I was babysitting it so couldn't be far away), and the EPIC 2 was embroidering, what was the PFAFF creative Icon doing?  Oh - it could have been embroidering as well, but I wanted to piece. Unfortunately, it can't do that on its own!!!

Nothing! So I did a bit of piecing. Which you'll see another day.

The bottom line? The quilt for Quilts of Valour got finished. I now have a HUGE stack of quilts to trim. A job for today.

Quilt for Quilts of Valour - DONE

And the poodle got stitched out.

The ribbon embroidered poodle

Darn -- I wish I had used a brighter color for the collar!!!  But it's a girl poodle and I didn't think bright pink would show on that dark red background.

Studio B? It's a huge mess. Those are the quilts to trim.

Quilts to trim

The drawers of embroidery thread are hanging open. I did remember to put in a fresh bobbin when I started the ribbon embroidery. You do NOT want to have to change the bobbin or have a thread break or run out of ribbon when doing ribbon embroidery. I've had that happen and while it can be done - you don't want to have to go down that road. 

Thread drawers hanging open

The stuff from my dressmaking class is strewn on the floor and there's my helper. Actually, she was hoping I had a treat for her.

Dressmaking supplies on the floor

And the basket of trimmings? Overflowing yet again.

The trimming bucket on the cutting table

We went out to dinner last night with some very engaging conversation about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket (very quickly) because of the negative aspects of social media. I won't go into that today. Then home to finish a book. The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter by Hazel Gaynor. A very good book recommended by Rose. A very interesting twist and I admit that I peeked ahead a couple of times to see what was going to happen. I hate it when I do that, but I was compelled.

I'm listening to the Radium Girls by Kate Moore while I'm walking on the treadmill. I find it so appalling that so many health officials did NOTHING despite the number of girls that were dying. Anyway - I could go on about that, but for today, I don't have time.

I'm so proud of my kid! She walked when she went to do her errands!! I tell you, once you get into the habit, it's fabulous. I walked to the grocery store yesterday. Seriously - if you dress for the weather and set your mind, it's not cold! The girls were thrilled. We did NOT detour to the mall.

On that note, I'm out of here!!! I've got a super busy day planned.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!