A lesson in learning!!!

We had the soup for lunch -- it was excellent, although I watered it down a wee bit too much. I have already given DH my grocery list for today, and I've asked for more squash! I see someone sent me a recipe. I might become a soup maker as I love soup for lunch! 

DH and I finally went out to dinner on our own last night. Hmmm -- I miss those date nights alone and will have to get back to that. I think KU will have to stay home as it's one of the few times we get to chat - we both have silly schedules. I slept very well last night, as I guess I finally got a lot off my chest! He patiently listened! Bless his heart! 

So yesterday was another humbling day, and I'm OK to admit I made a mistake. It's how I grow, but darn, there seem to be tons of "issues" these days!!

Last year, a friend and I decided that we wanted to make this. It's a 3D machine-embroidery "haunted" house. The pattern is by OESD. 

Terrifying Tower by OESD

Wait a minute. I did not decide to make that. Dede bought this pattern and enticed me to make it with her! It was hard to say no! It is so darn cute, and I hate to admit that there is an entire village of haunted buildings!!! And they are on sale right NOW, but we agreed NOT to buy a new one until this one is complete! 

We worked on it one day last year (2024), probably in the January time frame. I guess I was very hush-hush about it because it wasn't mentioned on my blog. But I mentioned it in this blog post dated March 24, 2024. 

From the blog comments, there were things we wanted to change. Could either of us find the notes? NOPE, and could either of us locate the sample shown in the blog post? NOPE!!!! 

So we agreed to meet yesterday to get back to work. On my rolling cart of "current" projects, there were two bags of foam (the house's structural support) that had been sitting in the basket for a very long time. I pulled them out and had them ready to go in the morning. 

It was only when I actually opened one of the bags that I found this. I shame-facedly admitted to Dede what I found!

The missing sample

Good grief --- I had the darn sample all the time. And this was after we scoured the internet to find that blog post, then looked at the picture closely to see what we didn't like about it. I swear, there are days when I wonder how I manage to get from sunrise to sunset in one piece! I swore that Dede took that sample home with her. Thank goodness, I remembered where the bags of foam were! 

We hadn't really planned on what to do yesterday, but we were going to wing it! The last time we were together, we made that prototype to test the cutting and materials, etc. This time, it was time to get to some serious work. And after finding the sample and evaluating everything, that was a good plan. 

The entire house consists of many pieces, each with a foam base to provide structure, allowing them to form a 3D house. I had cut the one piece of foam for last year's experiment on the Brother ScanNCut. I have the mark in the mat to prove it! But did we take notes on settings? Absolutely NOT!!!! 

So here is a good way to learn something that you do not remember or are not familiar with. 

I turned on the ScanNCut and started to scan one of the house pieces. My printer is printing only in red these days -- need to unclog some nozzles. This did not work well, and thankfully, Dede had all the templates printed in BLACK. 

Scanning the templates

However, the day did not start well because the cutter would NOT recognize the scanning mat. So I got out a brand-new mat, and it still wouldn't recognize it. We were determined to get this thing done, so what to do next? 

This is the new way to solve problems and learn. I Googled my problem, and it said there might be debris in the cutter, or the mat was dirty, or whatever. I dusted the bottom part of the cutter, and guess what? It worked! 

I'm pretty handy with the Edit screen on the cutter, and to keep it simple, we decided to scan each 8½" by 11" sheet individually and cut the foam pieces for each template page. We could have combined them, but let's keep this simple. We are each making one, so we had to cut two of each shape. 

Getting ready to cut

I learned that when I have a piece that includes two shapes, such as a wall with a window, I'm limited in the editing tools that I can use. I cannot rotate or duplicate the shape! I guess the machine software isn't sophisticated enough for that. But we managed just fine. 

A "complex" two-part shape

After attempting to cut, we were struggling. I cut the same shape many times, and it still wouldn't cut through. I was using the Deep Cut Blade (purple). I'm not that silly! But all these menus in the Cut function -- what do all those do? I have a book, so we dug it out, and while it identified each tool, it didn't provide much information. 

Different settings for cutting

Trust me, I was prepared to tape my mat together if I cut through it! There were no holds barred yesterday -- I wasn't afraid to touch any of those buttons. Just press, cut, and try again. 

I also had two different types of foam - one was a sew-in, and one had fusible on both sides. Which is better? And they don't appear to be the same thickness. According to Google, the maximum thickness this cutter can cut is 3 mm. We seemed to be within the thickness parameters. 

Different thicknesses of foam

However, I struggled with the fusible foam, so we put it aside. We were still making things up at this point and didn't want to rock the boat. PLUS -- we needed success. We wanted to have something to show at the end of the day! All the fusible foam got sorted, which was most of what we had, and set aside. 

The fusible foam did not seem to cut well

Then we cut a piece of sew-in foam, which sticks amazingly well to the fabric (gold) mat. We cut many pieces, most of which were positioned in the top left corner, and there was still so much sticky on the mat and zero debris on it when we were done!! I'll still wash the mat later today to restore its stickiness. 

The sew-in foam on the fabric mat

However, at multiple points, the cutter became finicky about the thickness of the foam. I guess some of it was more compressed than others. It would start cutting, then say, "This material is too thick." You can START and try again, or Quit Cutting. Many times, on the second attempt, it would cut, but sometimes it did not. 

Dede came up with the brilliant idea of using a rolling pin (heavier than a crafting brayer) to compress the foam. It worked best if the foam was compressed directly on the mat, and not on its own, and then put on the mat as shown in the picture. 

Compressing the foam

And there is a lever on the side of the machine that allows for cutting thicker materials. But the lever has to be in one position to scan, and then raised to cut. I kept forgetting, but got a friendly message on the screen when I forgot. 

Remember to raise or lower the scanner lever!

The lever on the side raises or lowers the scanning mechanism. We had loads of laughs throughout the day. Dede would ask, what does that mean? And I responded, "Ihave no idea, but let's try!" It was hilarious, and she was so worried about me cutting through the mat, and at this point, I was prepared to sacrifice cutting a mat to learn. We didn't even score the mat like last year!!!! 

The scanner lever

We decided that instead of trying to cut and embroider, we would cut only the foam and get that task out of the way. So we spent a good part of the day learning to cut foam, and voila!!!!! We have two sets of foam for the houses. 

Two sets of foam for the house structure!

We double-checked that we each had all the pieces, then bagged them and put them into a container. Guess what else went in the container? My vinyl for the house AND the sample. The sample is right on top of the transparent box, so there is no danger of it going AWOL again. The box is on the current projects table. 

The Terrifying Tower project box!

We have agreed to get together next week to cut all the vinyl, and the third time we get together will be to do the actual embroidery. But planning is what this project is all about. While I operated the digital cutter, Dede cut foam pieces, pulled them off the mat, and marked them. It was a fantastic team effort, and with all the learning, it took us about five hours to make that happen! 

And guess what? I made notes!!!! And I included samples!!!! I actually think I have a digital cutter project book, so I might dig that out and redo these notes. 

My NOTES!!!!!

What was even more amazing is that as we worked, we said, "Let's experiment with other materials to see what happens." And when we were done with our pieces, we did just that. We went back to the fusible foam, and it also worked like a charm because we were that much more knowledgeable about using it. Which is good, since I have a LOT of fusible foam. We also cut some very dense material - Timtex or Peltex, and the cutter cut it like butter. But we knew what we were doing by this time! By the way, the fusible foam worked equally well with the Deep Cut Blade (do not be afraid to play with the numbers on the blade, as that controls the depth of the cut), and it just needed to be pressed very hard onto the mat. The rolling pin was a godsend! 

FOUR bags of foam -- one more sew-in and three fusible

And now that we are done with the foam, it's back in its storage spot in Studio U. 

The foam is back in storage

WOW - WOW -WOW is all I can say. I learned a ton - we both did. I'm so much more comfortable with the tools on the digital cutter. I've hosted a digital cutter club for a couple of years, and the goal has been to help people feel more comfortable with their cutter. Well, I can definitely say that I'm more relaxed about using it. Not an expert - far from it, but not afraid! That club is now done, so I am happy to share my learning here as it happens! No need to save it for the monthly club. 

The next time we are cutting vinyl. We'll have to bring the shapes into the Canvas Workspace software, which I'm not super familiar with. It will be more efficient to group the pieces by color to make efficient use of the vinyl. Hmmm—I see another big learning day when that happens!!! I can hardly wait!!!!

I didn't get much more done on my UFO, but technically, this haunted house is a UFO. We started it in early 2024. Today is the LAST day I'll spend working on UFOs after our morning UFO sessions. Then I need to put them aside until the new year, because I have customer quilts to do and this bucket of goodies waiting to be made into five projects! 

The next bucket of projects sits

While putting the foam away, I got sidetracked. Remember those HSTs that were hanging out on the jigsaw puzzle? Well, they got put away in the bags for the appropriately sized piece. Oh my --- the top part of this shelf is bits that can be sewn into half-square triangles, and the bottom part is those that are already trimmed. 

My HST storage 

I found more HSTs sitting on the shelf, also waiting to be put away. Everything is in its place. 

More HSTs to file

I put the puzzle that was sitting on the table back into the box and dumped out the next one. I'm still figuring out how to use those sorting trays properly! My brain just wants to put the pieces right side up on the table, not sort them into trays! Another thing to train my brain. This puzzle I opened is only 500 pieces, but they are very oddly shaped. Using the trays isn't a big deal for this puzzle, but when I move to a bigger puzzle, it will help conserve space!

Sorting the pieces

I have a few ebooks I need to read as well, but this puzzle HAS to be done by Christmas. Why? I think it's self-explanatory!!!! I'll monitor myself—work for 30 minutes, then stop and move onto sewing! 

My current puzzle

And that's it for today. Yesterday was a fantastic day. Dede and I worked very well together, and I look forward to our next session. It might take a bit more finagling on the computer, but there will be less loading of mats since the pieces will be consolidated. We'd better get good at this, because we WANT to make all nine houses. And they are on sale NOW!!!! But not allowed to buy. BUT -- there's a sale!!!!

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!