Tuesday, August 28, 2012

One More Laser Application and the Multi Function Foot Controller

While playing around with DreamWeaver, I found another useful, time saving application for the Sew Straight Laser Vision Sewing Guide:

One way to make snowball blocks is to sew squares to each of the four corners and then trim away the extra triangles.  Again, I've been marking lines, corner to corner, on each of the smaller squares and then stitching directly on that marked line.  So -- what if I didn't have to mark?

Laser is set for center position, needle in center position, "J' foot on the machine and Q-01, which is called "Piecing Stitch - Middle" in the quilting stitch selection program, is my stitch of choice.  All I have to do is line up the laser and stitch on the line....easy peasy!

Can you think of other ways you would use the laser?  Maybe for quilting straight lines on a quilt, such as crosshatching (also called "diagonal grid"?  I know that I'm looking at this totally from my quilterly point of view, so there have to be sewing applications as well....what about spacing decorative stitching?  We did that in my project for convention and it worked really well.  What else?

Please leave comments -- I would love to know how you would use this and incorporate your ideas into my play time!

Now on to the multi function foot controller:


Here it is, just out of the box.  There is the main pedal, the smaller pedal to the left (I'll call it the second pedal), a metal bar to connect the two and a couple of large screws.  The size of the screws is nice because I don't have to use a screwdriver to put this together.

So I have choices for how I want to space the two pedals; there are three choices on the part that attaches to the back of the main pedal....

...and two choices for spacing on the second pedal.  This is cool because as I get used to it, I can change the spacing if it isn't totally comfortable for me.

So I got it set up and the screws tightened down just with my fingers so I can change it later if I want to.  In the upper right hand corner, I'm pointing (with pretty glittery red polish) to the cord that goes from the second pedal and plugs into the top of the main pedal.

And here's how it looks on the floor.  I have to remember that I can not only change the spacing, I can move the second pedal to the left of the main pedal if I want to.  I worked with it on the left side at convention, so now I'm going to try it on the right and see which way I like it.

So that was easy -- now what does it do?

As you can see in the picture above, which is a shot I took from one of the screens in the machine, there are two programmable areas here.  I can program each of them to do one of three things: needle up/down, thread cutting or reverse stitching.  I will probably always leave the bottom of the main pedal (the part closest to me) in the "needle position up/down" program.  If the needle is down and I tap that spot, it will come up and vice versa.  I have loved that feature in other machines and am happy to have it now.

How I program the second pedal will depend on the project.  If I'm piecing, I will most likely want it in the thread cutting mode; if I'm quilting and want to cut the threads very closely myself, I will program the second pedal for the reverse stitching mode.

That screen would look like the one above.  What I am liking about this is what I am consistently experiencing with DreamWeaver:  I can customize it for the way I want to sew and it is as easy as pulling up a screen and making a selection.  The multi function foot controller is one more way to make it mine....

I'll see how I like it on the right hand side and keep you posted if I make any changes....

Next up:  The V-Sonic Pen Pal...

Brother has provided me with the DreamWeaverTM XE, but all opinions expressed are entirely my own...






5 comments:

  1. I just bought a Dream Weaver last weekend. (Though sadly, I couldn't swing the embroidery one-just the sewing!) I LOVE all that you have shared about it so far. I spent one evening trying to figure out how to get my scant 1/2 inch--using the 1/4 inch foot and moving things around, etc. Thanks to your post--I was able to get it. Then the pivot hint-great for piecing!

    I am a relatively new quilter.. and trying to get a baby quilt finished for February--so your tips have helped me a lot! I hope you share more with us about the machine.

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