Ping Nel, Gadget Queen

I've put in an email to the Bernina Guru at Bogod's, but as yet nothing from there either. I shall never buy another Bernina, that's a given! I am going to phone again today and see if I can get anything.

Yes, I was sad not to hear from the embroidery group, but there, if there is no solution, that would follow, wouldn't it.

However, I have finished the bonnet for the "Bonnets from the Heart" collection for the NEC

Thanks for caring, Nel (GQ)

What an adorable little bonnet. Exquisite. Well done for overcoming the gremlins to get it done. . In message , Sartorresartus writes

The bonnet is adorable, Nel. So glad you were able to get it completed, even without a solution to your problem.

That is really just the cutest bonnet. You did a great job on that. Good luck with the machine. Taria

I HOPE (fingers' crossed!)

Email back from Bogod's, which I didn't understand. Not surprising: misunderstanding of problem. So I phoned and spoke to Dawn Cowling, the right person.

She was so sweet. We got back on the same wavelength (it only took a few minutes); she has dredged up a CD with the right Artlink software on it, and is mailing it to me.

That should do the trick and solve the problem. I'll keep you posted.

Pheew!

And thank you for your kind words about the bonnet. It took far longer to finish than it should have done, but I am quite pleased with it. Some of the other ones I've seen are exquisite. I wanted to keep mine simple; hence the whitework.

I shall now go back and attempt (for the fifth time) to make a 3 inch block. I just CAN'T get it right. Bleah!

Nel (Gadget Queen)

Did you try Thangles?

amy in CNY (for now)

It's about the only thing I haven't tried (I don't have any).

I even drew the wretched thing out on EQ, and still managed to mess it up. Then I thought I'd try to foundation piece it. No. Now I'm just doing an embroidery motif and keeping it whole. Somehow I seem to have lost the knack, or intelligence to sew on three-inch block-of-my- choice.

That's Friday, 13th for you, except that I tried on three other days too.

I've managed one, but the other one is just... oooh... frustrating!

One more go after tea, then I give in!

Nel (GQ)

I can grasp the notion that it is cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to buy new ink cartridges for the old one. I don't like it but I can live with it. Tossing out a sewing machine because a computer won't communicate with it? Waaah! That is simply unacceptable. I love my Berninas but have not invested in their embroidery unit even though their embroidery designs are exquisite. Who/what is Bogod? And wouldn't you simply croak if you invested $10,000 in the new snazzy Bernina ( or the Viking) only to discover in a couple of years that they weren't on speaking terms with an upgraded @#$! version of Windows? Polly

Bogod's is the importer into the UK of Bernina sewing machines.

When I bought the machine, I was told it would be future-proof. That was really something none of us, to be fair, could promise. We didn't realise then that computers would change so rapidly again. It was the communications cable that thwarted me originally. The sewing machine has a serial port and laptops only have USB. The adapters that do exist don't work with the Bernina.

I thought I would never be able to do the embroidery stuff again, but with the '98 desktop that I found, I thought I had a chance. Now I think I have. If I can get connectivity, I can start to download patterns from the internet and transfer them to the machine. The only other route would be to buy very expensive cards to do it. I can't see why they cost so much, but everything Bernina (or Viking, or the others for that matter) sells seems to cost megabucks.

I don't do much decorative sewing, but if I have a gadget, I at least want it to do what it was built to do, not just sit there like a lump of coal!

I wouldn't really have dumped it; I couldn't have afforded to replace it, anyway. But I did object, greatly, to the saleperson who suggested that 10 years old was ancient for a sewing machine, and what could I expect? That erked me big style! It does when my washing machine engineer suggests the same thing; and don't even get me on to irons and televisions!!!

All's (potentially) well that ends well.

Nel (GQ)

Meanwhile . . . back to the bonnet ( I was too irked about the attitude that a 10 year-old SM was history to notice the bonnet.) The bonnet is so very lovely. I make a few every year for the babies and it never crossed my mind that white embroidery on a white bonnet could be just so very beautiful. Thank you so much for a special idea. Polly

Considering how many of us are stitching happily and trouble-free on machines older than our grannies, I'd be annoyed too! Why shouldn't modern machines be at least as good as the antiques? sure, we want bells and whistles, but why should that equal rapid obsolescence? Roberta in D

On Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:54:02 -0700 (PDT), Sartorresartus wrote: (clipped)