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Long Day, Darwinism, and a New Design

Hit the ground running today. Woke up late, so much to do! Visited an embroidery shop with a combined total of about 90 sewing heads. They have machines that have 18 heads running at once on the same project. That's about, oh, 18 times faster than I can run a job so we got a bid from them. My job has been outsourced already.

Then off to the local supplier of thread and parts. Got a frame to use with the Big Bad Barudan instead of a hoop. The stitching area is much larger, but a table top is required. With the table top in place, I can't check thread tensions. Frustrating. Luckily, I got most of the adjustments made before I started to run the job.

Inhaled a slice of reheated pizza—DiGorno, not delivery—which was fairly easy until I got to the dry-gaggy crusty part. I think that will be stuck in my throat until Tuesday. And, as usual, burned the roof of my mouth on the molten cheese. Nevertheless, it was deeelissshus!

Ever do something so stupid you are amazed that you have survived Darwinian evolution thus far? I just had one of those moments. I've been doing some routine maintenance on the Big Bad Barudan; oiling, checking tensions, etc. The bobbin tension seemed a little off so I thought I'd clean the bobbin case. I wanted to look for lint and/or thread in the tiny areas and I needed light. What better light than direct natural sunlight? I took my bobbin case and my big ol' magnifying glass and lounged in the soft chair and started to look for stray fibers in the case. Soon I felt a burning sensation on my right leg. The super-X magnifying portion of the lens had focused the sunlight perfectly on my leg and it really started to burn! I now feel so sorry for all those ants…and that spider…

I also think a couple of hours later I realized that I had not taken any medication today. Last time I checked, though, they weren't smart pills.

Last night we created a new design. Well, part of it is new…things just keep evolving. This is stitched on a dark grey shirt.
The text "FAT BOY" has been added. Actually, it was the only part of the whole design that would fit inside the current hoop. It wasn't without its problems. I was not incredibly happy inserting the "FAT BOY" text above the already stitched devil-skull head. It's a pain in the ass!
The absolute placement of something digital is easy…X-axis, Y-axis. The placement of a shirt in a hoop and having it stay that way while securing it down is not so easy. I have a crease, two lines on the hoop and a measuring tape. I rarely get it right the first try, but maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist about it.


And now for the humor side of things…Big Al's design. I guess I didn't look at the file too closely before he stitched it out. I see changes that need to be made. It's a great idea, but I like the "FAT BOY" text from last night. This is only the first part of this shirt. There is more to come. The rest of the design is being digitized right now but I'm afraid we don't have the right colors to complete the job. We'll probably go back to using the devil-skull so it actually looks like we're producing something.

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