Monday 16 September 2013

An Explosive Week

So a week ago Sunday, I remember it was still warm & sunny and I got my Bee blocks done - my first ones were for Karen in Bee a Brit Stingy. She asked for Hourglass blocks to finish at 9" and with a 30s feel.
Hope these fit the bill - as requested I managed to slip in tiny bits of Liberty.






















I also got my blocks done for Judith's Bee Blessed, nice easy ones this month to ease us all back in.






















Technology almost got the better of me this week. Remember I got a new laptop n April for my birthday? Well, of course as it has Windows 8, it is not compatible with my antique Lexmark printer. Last year we upgraded Lexi to an Advent but I didn't like it, it wouldn't print wirelessly and ink seemed to be only available from PC World at a premium. Also, when you got the low ink warning it just went totally in the huff and stopped printing whereas my old trusty Lexmark would keep going until you could barely read anything - ha!
So, as I had a large stockpile of ink for Lexi I chose to hook up the old laptop to the printer until said ink ran out completely. But, old laptop caught a virus and last Wednesday, with a class in the evening and handouts to print - it croaked. Out came Advent from the loft (still with me?) and OH installed it on my new laptop and then offered to shoot off for some ink.
I should really have put a bet on somewhere, because he came back, not with ink, but with another printer, Mr Predictable. The new baby is a Canon and I am tickled pink to be able to sit in one room and hit "print" and then collect later............(today however, I got the low ink warning already, because mean old Canon only put in low yield cartridges, shame on you)
Fast forward to Thursday morning class. There we all were, labouring over our Sew A Long project, when, flash, bang, wallop - the iron blew up - actually burned a nick in the edge of the soleplate. It also manged to fuse all the sockets in the Community Centre - oops! Luckily our Jannie (janitor) put it all right and no sewing machine was harmed in the excitement.
So yes, I had to go buy a new iron....sigh.
Add to all that, the continuing drama we are having with Scottish Power / Scottish Gas over a tortuous switch in energy and I am about done with electrics!!

I will leave you with a sewing related tip -
If like me, you use Aurifil thread, you will know how long one of the 1300m spools last. But, sometimes you do end up with one of these.......

Next time, don't throw it away. You might also have some spools of alternative origin that look like this..
I have quite a few as I also have an embroidery machine so have collected different brands over time. I find this particular style of spool has a tendency to wind its thread around the spool holder which usually results in the thread snapping. Enter Mr Aurifil empty spool.
Just twist off the bottom, and fit it to your bottomless spool. Perfect!!

12 comments:

  1. Urgh for dodgy electrical items. Thank you for the double four patch blocks for Bee Blessed and the tip re the spool adaption.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous tip about spools, we are just entering new printer territory, they are a nightmare.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eugh printers are the worst. My latest, prolly my 3rd at least, is Canon but the wireless just will not work. Least the inks relatively cheap in tescos... Hope you dont fuse anything else, unless its bondaweb or freezerpaper!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eww for dodgy appliances. Great tip with the Aurifil. I've almost used up my first ever spool. It's taken long enough - they just seem to go on forever and ever!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah, that's not just Canon, that's standard to put in low cartridges for all manufacturers these days.

    Class sounds exciting though ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  6. brilliant tip thank you! And huge thank you for my blocks which I absolutely love!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ooh I don't have wireless printing - I am so low tech I'm horizontal really!

    Great blocks all!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Feel your printer and iron pain - we got our latest printer as it was cheaper than a new set of inks for our old fancy one, and had an iron trip out the house on a regular basis, ie. when it got hot!

    Thanks for the Bee Blessed reminder, I knew I has forgotten something this month!

    ReplyDelete
  9. How frustrating is technology!! Hope you didn't get an instant perm! Great recycling tip! Jxo

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your iron blew up? Well, technology is challenging but still. I love your blocks and thank you for the thread tip.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your blocks are lovely and don't even mention technology issues to me!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'd recycle if I could but no one here sells those monster spools!
    Sounds like the technology monster has been visiting you and causing havoc... hope thats the end of it because your blocks are certainly gorgeous and we all want to see more! Here's to a productive weekend, so we all get bluepatch eye candy on Monday!

    ReplyDelete

Printfriendly

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...