A Love-Hate Relationship

You may remember how excited I was last year when I got my new sewing machine- the Elna 740- with double the throat space for machine quilting.  Well, the honeymoon has ended.    Don't get me wrong.  I still love this machine.  When it cooperates with me.  But recently- coinciding with a tune-up, which makes me wonder what they did!- we have started to argue over the process of machine quilting.  We've had minor disagreements in the past, but these are knock down drag out brawls!  We're talking UFC quality fights.  And I am the one coming out bruised and battered since the machine always seems to win.



The most recent battle was with this table runner. Looks OK from here, but there are thread breaks and tangles all over it and three or four different threads since I was trying to identify the problem by process of elimination.
  I decided to try some McTavishing on it, since it's just going on the hall table where the cat will lay on it. 

(Here she is taking it for a test drive on the floor!)

 I don't think I did too badly for my first practice piece using the technique.  You just kind of keep making new shapes from the old ones and fill in between, so you have to pay attention to where you've been and which way you were going when you were there. Otherwise, you just go! 
I came  to the conclusion it was the fusible causing me trouble, even though I have made quilts with it before and not had these problems ( Again, I have to wonder what that "tune-up" entailed).  After I finished this I got out another practice piece and had no trouble at all with it. But there was no fusible.

So we're back on speaking terms.  But if I were you, I wouldn't stand outside under the sewing room window- just in case.

My green tip this time is to ask that you not throw electronics of any kind away in the regular trash.  Most of them contain harmful elements  Many computer stores and related businesses will now take these items for proper disposal.  And even then you should ask HOW they dispose of it.  Some who claim to be properly disposing of it are simply shipping it overseas where they have no clean air standards.  The people of these areas are breathing poisoned air from OUR "disposable" society!  If I had MY way there would be "Resource Reclamation Centers" where all consumer goods would be taken to be broken down into their components which would be re-purposed or recycled into new items.   I know I'm a dreamer, but I can't be the only one ( to paraphrase John Lennon)

I am grateful for:
snuggling under quilts now that the nights are cold
Cream of broccoli soup and fresh baked rolls
a room full of the sweetest kittens ever
movies on dvd (about 3 nights a week!)
Pizza