Dec 28, 2016
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. We had a very quiet Christmas around here with just Kevin, myself, Mom and of course the two fur babies Cocoa and Mia. We just do stockings as really there is not much we need or want anymore but it’s fun to have something to look forward to under the tree. Kevin then made a Christmas brunch and he also made a big turkey feast so he was kept busy. Before anyone feels sorry for him he really loves to cook so for him it’s a pleasure where for me it would be a chore.
It’s been a quiet week so far with both Kevin and I sleeping later than normal and just spending some quiet time in the morning. I have been doing a lot of journaling these past few days. Looking back at what I accomplished in 2016 and writing down my goals for 2017. I have come a long way in 2016. Sometimes when you are in it, you don’t feel like that but when you actually look back to where you started to where you are now it’s quite amazing. What I have discovered is that I have worked through a lot of fear this year. Oh, I still have a lot to work out. It seems that just as soon as I work through one set of fears and become calm within a week another new set comes and I have to continue the process all over again.
Mia is finally settling in. She has even spent short amounts of time on our laps. She doesn’t like it when Cocoa is on my lap though she comes up and swipes at him, claws are not out and it appears she is trying to get him to play with her. Not sure what that is all about. Here is a favourite perch of hers she likes to sit up there and look out the window.
How to Create a Pantograph Using Electric Quilt 7
As promised here is how I create my own pantographs using EQ7.
What is a pantograph you might ask? A quilting pantograph is a pattern, usually 10 to 12 feet long and can be different widths, with a pattern that repeats along the length of the paper. The design along the length of the paper will correspond to what will be quilted along the width of your quilt.
Paper Pantographs can be purchased from many different sources and come in different difficulty levels from fairly easy to quite complicated. If you have a computerized quilting machine you can also get digitized versions of the patterns that can be programmed into the quilting machines computer program.
For this exercise I am going to try to explain how to create your own custom pantograph using the Electric Quilt computer program.
First you need to do is to choose a design you want to use. This can be a drawing you do yourself, a border design you really like that you may want to do as an all over quilting design or a copyright free image you have found.
Next, you have to transfer this image into the Electric Quilt 7 software. You can do this a number of different ways but the easiest is to draw your image onto a piece of paper and then scan it as a .jpeg file and save it to a folder on your computer.
Take this paw print from a colouring page
- To turn this into a pantograph it will need some continuous lines drawn in. The first thing you need to do is save this image as a .jpeg file.
- Then open it in an image editing software program (Irfan View is free) and rotate the image so it’s on its side
- Save this image to your computer
- Open Electric Quilt 7 and start a new project. I called mine Paw Print Pantograph
- Import the .jpeg file into EQ7
Importing and Tracing an Image in EQ7
- In EQ7, go toWork on Block.
- Along the bottom of the screen, click the Tracing Image
- Click on Import Image . Go to where you save your scanned image and select it.
- A Crop Image box appears. From here you can crop your image if required. Select OK when done. Use the Shift key and drag to place the image on your worktable.
- Once the image is on your worktable, click on the Appliqué
- Using your drawing tools you can now trace your sketch to recreate the image.
- To check your tracking hide the tracing image
- In the case of the paw drawing above I traced the image and then used the drawing tool to join the areas for a continuous drawing.
For information on how to trace an image in Electric Quilt 7 please see the Electric Quilt help files.
Once you are happy with the image you have created it is now time to take this to be used in a pantograph.
- To create a custom pantograph the first thing you need to know is how wide the quilt top is that you want your design to cover. Once you have that measurement then subtract at least 1 inch. For example if your quilt top measures 60 inches then you will want to create your pantograph at 59 inches wide.
- So for this example pantograph I am going to make it 59 by 8 so I will change the block from 59 to 8 and then you will need to use the zoom functions to zoom in close and resize your block. I have recorded a short video on how I did this.
- Once this is complete simply print it out and tape it together and place on your longarm.
I created a video on how I created the above but my WordPress site doesn’t support video so I need to upgrade it. I don’t have the time to look into that right at this moment so I will have to post the video on my Facebook page and fix this up once I set up a new website/blog. That was on my list for 2017 so obviously it will be sooner in the year than later.
The finished pantograph will not look 100% perfect but you have to remember that this is just a guideline and once it is all quilted it will look great.
If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below.
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Dec 23, 2016
Well it’s Christmas time and what does the song say “the most wonderful time of the year”! Well, I do like Christmas and I do enjoy getting together with family and friends and I can say it is defiantly a busy time of the year.
I should put a warning here, this is a longer than usual post and something I need to get off my chest.
One thing I have noticed though, and maybe it’s just me, is that customer service, I mean true customer service, seems to be a thing of the past. I’m not saying there isn’t any customer service out there however it is lack luster and tinged with whatever it takes to just get by so that the person doesn’t get a bad review. Not sure if this is even making sense. I guess what I am trying to say is that what I have been experiencing lately is like a 2.5 star service out of a potential 5. The service is there, it’s not horrible, at least not horrible enough to sit down and right a bad review although maybe I should, but the person serving doesn’t bother to even try for that 5 star service or even go the extra mile.
This isn’t just in one store although I will site an experience shortly, I am actually experiencing this all over, especially when the person doing the serving is under 30. Am I just getting old? Maybe. Am I prejudiced? Maybe, after all I have been in customer service in one way or another for the past 38 years. Maybe I am just more aware of lackluster performance these days. I am aware that whatever you put your attention to manifests but I can’t say I actually go looking for lackluster performance.
The one example I have that really stands out for me was at Optiks International at Uptown Mall here in Victoria BC. I was in need of a new pair of glasses so I decided to do a Groupon where I got good savings on my frames. The first time I walked into the store I received service. The young girl was pleasant, answered my questions however was not about to go out of her way to actually walk around and help me pick out a frame. I was by myself and can’t see without my glasses so I decided to come back another time when I had someone with me. The place was not busy by the way. I would place the customer service at a 2 star level.
The second time going back I got a pleasant young man who really did try his best. It was obvious he didn’t have complete knowledge of what he was doing but he did try his best and went out of his way to be helpful. I can’t ask for more than that. Yesterday afternoon I went and picked up the glasses as I got a call they were ready. This time it was a different young girl again. (Honestly I was in there three times and didn’t see the same staff members once). The girl brought out the glasses to me. Now Optiks International do a two for one deal and I decided to get a pair of sunglasses for my second pair of glasses.
Here’s where the real lackluster customer service starts! When I looked at the second pair they weren’t sunglasses as I asked. She went and checked and sure enough there had been a mistake made. No apology was made however she did say they would fix it. No problem really as I didn’t need the sunglasses at this time. (Good thing I wasn’t going away somewhere warm for Christmas). I wasn’t thrilled about the whole thing and thought maybe I would just keep the second pair as is. Here is where things got interesting. She said I could do that but what about the additional $42.00 I had spent on getting the sunglasses. Excuse me!? What additional $42.00?
Oh well, you know the $42.00 mentioned here on this little piece of paper (which I had never seen before). So I asked, OK, if I do this will I get that money back. “Oh I don’t know I need to go and ask.”
Now for the even worse lackluster customer service. A young man comes and sits down in front of me. This man does not introduce himself, does not smile or have any pleasantries at all, and absolutely no apology. In fact both this young man and the young woman BOTH intimated that it was MY fault that I didn’t know about the extra charge? I am not kidding here this actually happened.
In fact this young man was border line rude. I finally said look I asked if I could have the second pair made into sunglasses and I was told of course. At no time was I told yes you can however there is an additional $42.00 charge. Now I more than likely would have paid the fee but for full disclosure, I should have been told.
Again, no apology, none, he pointed to a little tiny piece of paper and said well that is why we right it down on this slip of paper so you know. Ah, excuse me? First I had never seen that paper before and second like the customer is going to know what that is unless it is explained to them. This young man was kidding right?! Alas unfortunately no, he wasn’t kidding and the absolute sad fact in all of this is that it turns out he was a manager.
I finally explained to him nicely and with a smile how he should have handled the situation, and I also said he should always smile. To his credit he did smile then, he had a beautiful smile. Do you know what he said!!?? He said that people were always telling him he needed to smile more often.
OK this was a young man in customer service who was a manager who was told by many and his customers that he should smile more. Seriously! What is wrong with this picture folks! If he is the manager and his performance was less than sterling how on earth can one expect the employees under him to be any better. Now I don’t blame the original young man who helped me at all. He truly was helpful and doing his best and I could tell he was somewhat new to the whole thing. The young girl and this manager yesterday were so far off base as to what good customer service is and how to rectify a problem that they both need serious customer service training 101.
The number one rule in customer service is that the customer is always right even when they are wrong! How does this work? If the customer is right and the employee made the mistake then the customer should ALWAYS get an apology. If however the customer is actually wrong, you can show empathy and be sympathetic and listen to the customer without actually saying you’re sorry. It’s tricky but it does work. You will find more often than not the customer just wants to be heard. However at NO time, and I mean NO time do you ever blame the customer or say that the customer should have known!! It shouldn’t even be hinted at!! Not even a little bit.
Well, that was a bit of a rant but on a better note I did receive wonderful customer service at Save-on-Foods at Tillicum Mall while going through the checkout yesterday after the glasses incident. That made my day and finished my errands on a high note. Unfortunately I can’t remember her name. Isn’t that always the way. I will have to look for her next time I am in the store and make a point of saying thank-you.
So what about you, is it just me, did I just get someone having a bad day? Has anyone else experienced lackluster customer service these days?
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Dec 21, 2016
Well, it’s certainly a busy time of year. I’ve been a little lax posting on the blog but only because I haven’t been home a lot these days and if I am home I have been busy quilting client quilts which of course is a good thing.
Last Tuesday my partner and I ventured a driving trip up the Island to Nanaimo to have a visit with his Mom. It was cold and clear at least down in Victoria and not much snow around where we live. However once you drove a little ways north there was lots of snow. My partner has a boat that he keeps at a farm near Nanaimo so we dropped in to see how it was fairing with all of the snow.
This is what we found. You would think this would be fine right? Just brush the snow off and we would be good to go. Not so! The snow had melted pooled turned to ice and then more snow on top. The weight of the combined snow and ice had ripped the cover in several places and we tried to get the snow off of the boat with no luck. There was at least 4 inches of solid ice under that layer of snow. We finally had to go and purchase a new tarp and tear this on off. Oh well. The snow is gone now as the temperature has warmed up however last weekend my partner and I witnessed this when we took Cocoa for a walk.
The above picture was actually taken a couple of years ago by John Broughton of the Times Colonist newspaper but you get the idea. We live near what are called Panama Flats and every fall and winter these flat areas become flooded and when the weather is right they freeze over and you can skate on them. This has not happened in over two years now but this year the cold spell lasted long enough to freeze the flooded fields so that you could skate on them. Of course the next day the weather warmed up and it rained.
I actually found I enjoyed the bit of cold weather we got this year, it will be interesting to see if we get more or if that was our winter. It’s hard to tell around here these days.
On the quilting front I finished quilting a customer quilt. This time a created a pantograph using Electric Quilt 7. I will post a blog on how to do this for anyone interested as it is actually not that hard once you figure it our.
My client made this quilt using a layer cake and it was coffee themed so I thought it would be fun to try my hand at quilting a coffee mug. I found a simple drawing of a coffee mug on the internet. I find that copyright free colouring book pages are a good source for these types of images. I traced it linking two together to make the design and then used Electric Quilt 7 to create the actual pantograph. I think it worked out quite well and it worked very well with the overall design of the quilt.
Well, onto wrapping Christmas presents since that day is coming up fast I had better get at it. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and all the festivities.
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Dec 12, 2016
Oh the weather outside is frightful! Ugh! We haven’t had any real snow in Victoria for at least two years now however that was broken last week and it snowed again this morning. Granted the one snowfall lasted all of one day but still!
The positive thing about snow it that it is beautiful and it does make life interesting here on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Since we don’t get a lot of snow a lot of folks don’t even bother putting winter snow tires on their cars and the city doesn’t really have what you would call snowplows. Also, the snow we tend to get is slippery and wet heavy snow. Our temps don’t always stay below freezing so that means that everything thaws in the daytime and then gets frozen again at night making roads like skating rinks. Folks laugh at us back East because around here just a few inches of snow can pretty much shut the city down. Oh well, it makes for quiet sewing days.
The above are two of the views that Cocoa and I enjoyed Friday morning on our walk. Well, actually I don’t think Cocoa enjoyed it at all. It was his first real experience with snow as he hails from the streets of Las Vegas. He kept lifting his paws up and then finally he turned around and tried to get home as fast as he could. On the Saturday when I called for him to go for a walk he didn’t even budge from his bed. As of yesterday the snow was gone and it rained all day however this morning it snowed but has now turned to rain.
With the weather the way it was this past weekend I actually got a lot of sewing done! Yeah. I got top quilt tops finished that I have had on the back burner for over a year now.
These two are huge queen sized quilt tops. The Gravity quilt top on the right was the fabrics from the kit. The blocks on the left were mostly from my stash. The photos aren’t the best as the quilts are very large and I couldn’t find a space large enough in the house to take good photos. It was a little too wet outside to try that. They are now finally in my to be quilted pile. We shall have to see how long they both languish there.
Last week I also finished quilting a client quilt. She had completed a large twin sized quilt for a little girl. We chose to go with a fun simple flower design in an Aqua thread using Superior Thread Sew Fine 50.
She used a nice cozy flannel for the backing of this quilt. This quilted up beautifully and was a lot of fun to quilt.
I have more client quilts coming however with the weather these have been delayed so I may get a little more sewing time in today. I am on to sewing up a quilt for my very first great niece who is making her arrival in late Feb early March. Mom and I will be travelling to the mainland again in January for the baby shower so the quilt needs to be finished soon. I have another sew day coming up this Saturday with a group of friends and we will be having a pot luck lunch as well so I should have the quilt top finished by this weekend and should be able to quilt it over the Christmas holidays.
A snow day is only bad news if you don’t have enough fabric and thread!
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Dec 6, 2016
Kevin and I had our open house on Saturday. It was a lot of fun catching up with people we haven’t seen in years (we keep in touch by Facebook) and in some cases getting to know our neighbours better. I decorated the house for the holidays last week and did a lot of cookie baking as well. We have a lot of cookies left over and I am going to have to freeze them or start giving them away or my waistline is going to grow.
We had our first snowfall last night. Well, it amounted to about 1 cm of snow on the ground the real nasty part is the icy road outside our townhouse. Currently it is a sheet of pure ice so much so that even Kevin looked at it and said he didn’t want to drive on it. Ugh I really dislike winter. Luckily in Victoria we don’t get much of this type of weather so hopefully it will be gone soon.
In other news I have started to look for a part time job. Nothing too much just something to fill in the gaps when I am not so busy with the quilting. The quilting business is starting to pick up and this is a good thing but I thought I would like to have something else as well even if it’s just to get out of the house once or twice a week. Well you would think this would not be a hard task wouldn’t you? Well, you would be wrong.
First off, although I held office and bank clerk positions for the first 20 years of my working career I have been working in a more professional capacity as a consultant in the later part of my working years which means that I am highly over qualified for the jobs I have been applying for. This is fine by me as I am only interested in a job that fills in the gaps and gets me out of the house (as mentioned above).
The real issues start with the people doing the hiring. These people are much younger than me and far less experienced. I am not the usual person they interview and you can tell right away I make them uncomfortable because I don’t answer their questions the way they are used to dealing with. Don’t get me wrong, I am not rude or anything but I guess they are used to dealing with people tripping over themselves saying the “right” things and “selling themselves”. I have no intention of doing any such thing.
One young man who interviewed me actually wanted me to “sell myself”, it was laughable. The job in question was one I could do with one hand tied behind my back. He promised to call me last week and to date I haven’t heard from him. Not exactly a professional way to deal with people, when you say you are going to call back, that is what you should do, even if you haven’t made a decision. I am thinking I won’t hear from him as I know I intimidated him. Now, I didn’t try to honestly, but really! Nice young man but he has a lot to learn, including how to give handshakes.
One of the standard questions asked was where do you see yourself in 5 years. When I asked why the question was important he actually wanted me to say working for his company!! This was a very young man and the answer I gave him was this. “If you had asked me 5 years ago where I saw myself it would not have been, well, let’s see let’s get laid off from a 15 year job, go through a nasty divorce and oh let’s throw in cancer for good measure. With that in mind the only answer I can give you is happy, healthy and still alive.” What I should have done was ask him where he saw himself in 5 years because surely he has to think bigger than the job he is doing now. The sad fact is I don’t think he does. I honestly think he thinks he will be working at that company for life. As I mentioned he is very young and has a lot of learning to do.
So, so much for part time job hunting. I’m sure something will come up, or not… either way I am learning a lot!! A lot about life and myself.
Life is a journey that is for sure.
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