Snow is in the air...

I finally started practicing making snowflakes with the laser, and it's actually quite hard. Following that line with your laser dot requires precision and a lot of practice. My goal is to practice every night for the rest of the week, and then do the quilting this weekend.

"Laser"

Hooray, my laser arrived last night. I wasn't feeling very well, so I didn't play with it much, but we put the batteries in, and could see upon turning it on that it was MUCH better than the laser that came with the Bailey. We just need to hook it up to my frame tonight, and away I go...

Almost there...

We finally got the carriage all set up, after some difficulties: everything was set up and we were trying it out, when we realized the black plastic tracks that the top carriage run on, were covered with gauges and scratches. That's not good for having smooth stitching! We ended up cannibalizing the tracks from the GMQ Pro box that was incorrectly sent to us...but finally, everything was set up as I desired, and it all works perfectly!

The only thing I'm waiting on now is the Grace laser. The one that comes with the Bailey is, to be frank, complete crap. The new laser is in the mail and should be here soon; in the meantime, I've been practicing my starting and stopping stitches, and have gotten quite good at it :)

Further Frustration...

So my new carriage arrived last night, but we couldn't get it set up -- the screws we were using before for the older carriage won't work on the wheels for this one. So we have to go to Lowes tonight to buy new ones (as well as find a way to get the laser to go on). Fingers crossed that everything will be set up and I can finally do some real testing tonight.

Grace Frame Company Rocks!

Grr, frustration! I ordered my carriage upgrade for my Little Gracie II -- from Allbrands.com. Big mistake!! They sent the wrong carriage, and not only that, but part of it was broken. Returns with Allbrands take forever (if you can even get them to agree to the return), and they charge a 15% restocking fee. Ridiculous.

So I contacted the Grace Company directly, and they're sending me out a new carriage upgrade immediately, free of charge, as well as the pre-paid postage to send back the wrong carriage upgrade. They really are awesome -- every time I've spoken to them, they've been helpful, sent me any missing parts immediately, etc. And here they are fixing this situation when I didn't even order directly from them. They rule!

Tree Skirt Top Finished!

Huzzah, I'm done with the top of the tree skirt. It's pretty crappy, to be honest, but so long as no one looks at it too closely, it should work well enough. I definitely learned some lessons from working on this:

- starch is your friend (although I'm going to give sizing a try next)
- putting little sandpaper circles on the bottom of your plastic rulers makes a world of difference as far as slipping
- fine-pointed Sharpie markers are great for marking cutting lines on fabric
- Illustration board (medium weight cardboard) is awesome for making templates. Doesn't bend or flex as the pen moves alongside it.
- DON'T try to modify your pattern after you've already started...

My new upgraded carriage for my Little Gracie II should be arriving today. Can't wait to try it out. All we need to do after that is get the laser affixed, and I should be able to start practicing for reals!