The Last Tea Towel -- and the Sets

I finished the last tea towel this afternoon.  I had no idea what the design was; I have no papers or color charts with these cards that I purchased used on eBay, nor could I find any pictures on the Internet.  I couldn't tell from the little black-and-white diagram on my sewing/embroidery machine what it was, either, though I made an educated guess, and was close.  So here is the result.  If I had it to do over again, I'd choose different colors.  Maybe different stabilizer, too, as the central unembroidered area is a bit puffy.

I did guess right about the little cat on the step, and I recognized the sunflowers for what they were; but I was sure surprised when what I thought to be a small piglet at the top of the ... whatever it was (a door, it turns out), wound up being a bow!  I inadvertently blended instead of contrasted the colors, so it's all a bit of a mishmash.  But the words over the door read, "BACK DOOR FRIENDS", and it says 'WELCOME' on the mat.

Once the last towel was complete, I divided all the towels up into sets that I considered pleasing:

Here's a set that was done back in August:

And with that, I have finished 54 machine-embroidered tea towels -- 9 sets of 6.  Two sets were for Andrew and Hester's and Jeremy and Lydia's anniversaries.  Another, my mother-in-law bought for her stepdaughter's birthday.  There are still quite a number of designs I have not yet used.  Someday...

Five(?) More Embroidered Tea Towels

There's one more to go ... and that doesn't seem right, because yesterday I said there were seven more to go.  So... which day did I miscount?  Or did I forget to take a picture of one today?

The next tea towel is in the hoop, the design set up and ready to go.  I'll do it tomorrow.

Here's Tiger, curled up in one of his favorite spots -- under my marble table, right at my feet.

The Next Four Embroidered Tea Towels

There are 7 more to go.

Seven More Embroidered Tea Towels

My embroidery machine locked up again shortly after I started using it earlier today.  I took it apart... brushed, oiled, and restarted it.  It stitched for a while before locking up again.  I called the Bernina Store in Omaha, and the lady told me about another place under the throat plate -- between presser foot and bobbin -- to look for lint.  I got it open, finally, and found there a LOT of lint.  I brushed it out and asked where to oil it; one must be careful not to get oil on any of the electronics.  The lady gave me careful instructions, and soon the machine was moving again.  I oiled it a little more after hanging up, ran it slowly for a bit, then faster... and finally went back to the embroidery design that had gotten stymied.  It stitched it out like magic -- and it's been doing great ever since.  Hasn't broken as many threads as usual, either, and it sounds better, too.

They really should give people instructions for cleaning and oiling inside these computerized machines, instead of just telling them to take the machines to a Bernina tech at least once a year, and more often if they sew like some of us do.  It's sometimes difficult to get to a tech -- it's a two-hour trip each way, for me -- and furthermore, they sometimes charge an arm and a leg.

I'm glad I now know how to take my machine apart and clean and oil it well.

Because the machine is working so nicely, not even breaking threads very often, I’ve finished wrapping and bagging gifts, except for one or two things.

The last two or three designs were gaudier than I expected them to be, on account of not following the suggested coloring.  I think ... they’re for Victoria!  :-D

Four More Embroidered Tea Towels

I had hoped to get at least five tea towels embroidered today, but we went Christmas shopping this afternoon, so that nixed that.  And then tonight, just as I was finishing the strawberry design, the machine locked up tighter'n a jug.  It had threatened to do so earlier today -- and now it made good on its threat.

So I did what I do best:  I trotted upstairs calling, "Larrrrrryyyyy!!!"  I told him what kind of screwdriver we needed to take off the end of the sewing machine beside the take-up lever, as I was fairly certain there was thread caught inside it somewhere.

He found a screwdriver... took off the end... and indeed there was a large glob (technical term meaning 'clump, chunk, hunk, and wad') of thread all tangled around the spring for the needle bar, and more back where we couldn't see.  I pulled most of it out with my serger tweezers, and then Larry vacuumed it out.  He oiled the machine in places where I have been unable to reach, being careful not to get it on electronics.  We rebooted the machine... started it running slowly, then a little faster until the oil worked its way into tight spots.

I think it's fixed now.  I sure hope so.

Here are the four towels I finished today.  The strawberry design wound up with permanent marker dots for seeds instead of embroidered seeds, because that was where the machine quit.

Today's Embroidered Tea Towels

Here are the tea towels finished today (that is, Friday, the 23rd -- it's 2:00 a.m. as I post this).  The embroidery card that quit working yesterday, 'Willow Woolkeepers', by Carol Endres, did not come back to life again today.  It looks totally blank; the files have evidently been corrupted somehow.  And there doesn't seem to be a like card anywhere on the Internet.