Thursday, April 12, 2012

A little of this...

and a whole lot of that is what my life has been about for the last two weeks or so.  The image above is what the last of the three painting looks like with the flowers added.  I didn't get to the other two I had planned to paint before something else intervened.  And what that was I can not remember.

Here is a look at a piece of fabric I was playing with, testing the paints and brushes, even an artist dipping pen used with ink to test my hand writing on fabric.  Words seem to be everywhere, incorporated in all forms of art, but I am not sure if I want everywhere to include in my work.

Guess what has come to live at my house a week ago.  Yes... The larger harp Janome 7700 Horizon and the table made to hold it that I had been contemplating purchasing for about a year.  Do I know all that it does yet?  No!  What I do know is that I love the additional inches in the harp area.  I know that I love that it is quieter. The lighting is better, but I know that supplemental light is still needed.   I know that I love that it starts to stitch immediately without hesitation like the 6500 and 6600 does; a characteristic that drove me crazy for a time after I brought both the 6500 and the 6600 until I got used to it and accepted that that was just the nature of the machine.  I never liked the non hopping foot developed for the 6600.  Instead I used a generic 12mm open toe foot. So to my dismay I know that a hopping foot of any kind did not come with the Horizon.  I know that I didn't like that fact.  I thought that was an issue easily solved. I went online and brought one. 
I knew that the 7700 was a short shank machine and that  my favorite hopping foot used on the 6600 would not fit the Horizon.  I ow know that when my favorite style hopping foot that I  ordered for a short shank machine came in the mail that it did not fit the 7700. 
 SO.... with no other option  I am getting used to the free motion foot that does not hop.  I am still not so sure why that is a plus because the eye still sees the part that holds the needle and the screw going up and down.
I am not a collector of sewing machine.  After all you can only use one at a time has always been my thinking, but I didn't get rid of my 6600 or the cabinet it is in. Insurance, just in case.  The last time I thought that way was when I kept my New Home 7500 just in case the Janome 6500 didn't work out.  The 7500 lived in the closet for years.  The closet it not an option for the 6660 and a A little rearrangement was necessary to keep the machine and cabinet for now. 
I keep getting close to the city of Tampa,(you can see it off in the distance)  but not into the city.  Last Saturday I was over on the gulf side of the state a little north of Tampa teaching a one day class.  It was held a community room of a library.  There were 15 present.  My daughter Rene' who is in town on business and for the Easter Holiday. She along with Lyn who drove, accompanied me to that side of the state.  While I taught they went shopping.  On the way home we stopped at this restaurant that Rene' likes that specializes in home style southern cooking.  It was great and worth the little detour off Interstate 4. 

This is a view of the class and the spacious room we used. 
For the nest day or two will be assembling supplies and getting myself packed for a two day class I will be teaching in the Sarasota, FL area this weekend.

2 comments:

Carol said...

Your machine is a beauty. Looks like a real work horse. What does that silver button that looks like an eye do?

Juanita Yeager said...

Hi Carol
It a mouse type wheel that gets you to different place on the screen, that I have not tried using, I find the touch screen easy to use and there is so much stuff this machine does that I have no desire to learn just like there was so much stuff about the 6600 that I used for years and never once had a need to try.
Hope all is well with you.