This project is proving to be the perfect April Fool’s Project and the joke is on me. Thanks, Denise, for coming up with this idea. My interpretation of this challenge was that we’d choose a project we love but, except for doing something really crazy, we would never let ourselves start on this project. I think what Denise was really thinking . . and you know we can finish each other’s sentences so I probably can read her mind . . is that Judy is so close to being crazy, just one really challenging project could send her over the edge. She probably had no idea that just getting the chart ready to stitch is all it would take.
I chose A Symphony of Friendship Sampler by Cottage Garden Samplings. I love it for so many reasons. Vince loves old trees that branch out like that. I love birds. I’m working on a bird wall in the breakfast room and I think this piece would be a great centerpiece for that wall.
The challenge for me is that it is a LOT of stitching and it is BIG. I did have the called for fabric in my stash. I ordered Vikki Clayton Silks and they should have arrived today but instead, they arrived in Neosho and now they will go back to Kansas City and maybe I’ll have them by Friday or Saturday or Monday. They will be here when they get here. Don’t need them til April 1 but once the USPS gets them, I have to keep a close watch on them or I may never get them.
This morning Vince needed to go to town and asked me if I would go with him. I said . . do you mind if we go by Office Depot, Natural Grocers and Fox Farm? No, he loves to shop so he was happy to go. I needed purple and white sweet potatoes from Natural Grocers but ended up getting a few more things there (eggs, fresh fennel bulb, parsnips and, of course, sweet potatoes). From Fox Farm I needed whole nutmeg and that’s all I got there.
The Symphony of Friends chart is on 11 x 17 paper. It’s front and back of two sheets. I wanted to make it into a pdf and use the Markup app but our printers are too small to scan that size paper so that’s why I wanted to go to Office Depot. The guy was very nice but he fed the paper through the machine (instead of carefully getting it lined up on the glass) and the second page, both front and back were a little wonky and I could not straighten them out, even with the adjust grid feature. It was like there was a little dip right in the middle. I tried and tried. He emailed the copies to me and I didn’t get paper copies so I didn’t know it til I got home and started working with it.
Then I decided . . I can fold each 11 x 17″ sheet in half, copy half of one side, copy the other half, turn it over and copy half and then copy the other half. Do that for both sides of both sheets, then go into the sewing room, carefully trim the paper so the grid is all squared up. Did that, then scanned them, saved as a pdf. Brought them into MarkUp. Spent another hour or so . . no, that wasn’t working either. They just weren’t straight enough.
Vince said “The UPS Store over at Stone’s Corner makes copies. I’ll call and see if they can make a pdf.” Yes, they can. He had something he wanted to send via UPS so we went over there. The lady he had talked to on the phone COULD make a pdf but she had left by the time we got there. The other three employees did’t have a clue how to make a pdf. After at least half an hour of them all looking at each other like “I dunno! What are we going to do?”, Vince said “Can I come back there and look at the machine?” YES! So he was able to figure it out. They couldn’t figure out how to put it on his thumb drive and were afraid they were going to screw up something so I said . . just attach the four sheets to an email, send it to my email and I can merge them at home.
It is now 6:16 p.m. and messing with this chart is ALL I’ve done today. The grid isn’t perfect but it’s probably as perfect as it’s going to get. I’m done with this project til the floss arrives and then I’ll spread it out, see if any colors need to be changed, then put it away til time to start stitching on 4/1.
I wish ALL charts had the option of buying a paper chart or a pdf chart. I wish all paper charts were printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper! I wish April Fool’s Day was more about eating ice cream all day instead of playing a mean trick on myself. 🙂
DebMac says
Occasionally, you do get a project that is such a hassle to kit up that you wonder if it is worth it. I think ice cream is in order for this project and you should probably put hot fudge sauce on the ice cream as well.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
You’re right. I wish the designers wouldn’t use the 11 x 17 paper but there are probably people who love it.
Sherry Bobak says
Does your home printer have a scanner? On my Canon All-in-one, I can put a long chart on and preview the image. Then, I move the box to select the part of the chart I want to copy (say top to a little over the middle.) My printer will then scan that part as a PDF. Then, I turn the chart around and do the same for the bottom to a little over the middle. Save those as PDFs. I do that a lot for charts that are printed too small to make them bigger for old eyes and also for a working copy. Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps. I’m sure Vince can figure it out from there.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Vince tried but there’s no way to scan the whole thing without dividing it up and even then, it’s really hard on our scanner to get it 100% straight and if it’s off just a little, it won’t work well in the Markup app. So long as it’s just corners off, I can fix that but sometimes there’s an area where the fold was and I cannot get that perfectly flat (even tried ironing it) or there’s a little “dip” in the middle where the lines aren’t totally straight. Not sure what causes that but the copy from Office Depot had that too. It’s much easier with a small chart or even a full page chart but this one being 11 x 17 made it even harder.
justquiltin says
Oh I think you missed the small print of the April Fool’s Day project rules – you DO need to eat ice cream all day, that is a requirement! But as it’s a Monday and I have to work at the office that day, I won’t get as much eating ice cream time. Rats!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I knew there was a reason I decided to do this! Thanks for that clarification. We may have more people want to join us now that you’ve made that requirement clear. 🙂