Am trying to focus on art related things on this blog instead of it being a tedious list of health and domestic complaints. Challenging these days, though I do think the Remicade infusion has helped somewhat. The Foot is less swollen and the fatigue hasn't been as bad. Step in the right direction.
On the art front, I am still waiting for my Pfaff Creative Vision to be fixed. It has been at the dealer for three weeks. I went to get it yesterday, and the shop owner took it out to show me how well it stitched now. Sadly, while it stitched ok, the bottom thread wouldn't cut with the thread cutter, so it is still there, being fixed again. I am tired of not being able to sew and embroider when I need to. To say the machine is fussy is an understatement. I love the interface and overall design of the machine, and the IDT is excellent. When it sews. Sigh. I just want a machine that will let me do what I see in my head without having to stop and re-thread every five minutes. Is that too much to ask? Apparently!
New machines are outrageously priced and do outrageous things such as scan a drawing, convert it to stitch, and stitch it out all in the machine itself. Say whaaaa? After the harrowing experience of buying the Pfaff though I am hesitant to even look at another new embroidery machine. The shop owner mentioned that I got a good price on the Pfaff, that the cost "wasn't that bad," which is true considering how much machines are. Still though it is beyond annoying to pay the price of a used car and not love sewing on the machine. The machine might be better for someone else's energy and sewing style, and I could sell it and move on to something else. But what if the investment is a dud as well? It is hard to find good reviews of machines as people are hesitant to report machine issues. Otherwise I would not have ended up with this one. The Pfaff is nine years old this summer, an has only about 60 hours of sewing on it. Pathetic!
I am not in the market for a new machine now, as yesterday I upgraded my dilapidated stove. A couple months ago something went wrong in my Ma's 1990 Magic Chef oven when I was cleaning it (involving a mild shock, sparks, and a now non-heating lower element.) I've been living without an oven and using mostly one burner since. No birdie bread, no frozen food that can't be microwaved, no oven. Weird. Living like a hippie with a hot plate, waiting for my taxes to come back. Wellll....they did! After much deliberation and weighing of options, I ordered a neat double convection oven. Probably more oven than I need, but I like the height of the upper oven and it has a "cook frozen food without defrost" feature (perfect for me.) Maybe I will eat better and cook more if I have new options that don't take hours. This is prompting a need to declutter and clean my kitchen in preparation for the oven's arrival. I've called in the military in the form of Tim, who has a much better sense of organization and purpose than I do. Together we will tame this tiger called a kitchen and make it worthy of cookie baking!
Bringing home the oven brings on a big challenge, though, as the birds can not be home when I do the "burn off" of a the new stove. Heating the oven for the first few times can cause the release of harmful gasses, so the birds need to Go North and stay at Woof Meow for a couple days while I put the oven through its paces and then ventilate the house. I am not sure I can take being home without them! Tim suggested I make a recording and play it non-stop while they are gone. It isn't the same as the birds provide interactive entertainment all the time, telling me what to do and when to do it. They are my soul.
Finally, on an art note, I've decided that when the current series of small stitched pieces is complete, I will be putting them on an online art gallery site for sale. I thought about having a commerce site on my website, but think it will become "one more thing" for me to manage, and I'd rather be making more art. So stay tuned! My dedication to creating in some form every day has not wavered, and I see a difference in my health and spirit when I can not work in (even) a little art time. I am focusing on smaller works for a while and am excited about the new direction my work is taking with the incorporation of digital fabric printing. Amazing things lie ahead as long as I show up to explore them! Cheers.