Carolyn Wedel Archives - View from the Front Porch

Have Needle Will Travel

By judythemorgan|2019-07-22T15:01:39-05:00July 25th, 2019|Guest blogger|1 Comment

A Blog by Guest Blogger Carolyn Wedel

I’ve dabbled in the needle arts since the ninth grade. No, I’ll not reveal how long that’s been …only my doctor and I know that secret.

I’ve broaden my horizons recently in my quest to be more creative with my embroidery skills and purchased a Brother Persona PRS100 embroidery machine. It’s a 68-pound beauty and it took my husband & I together with a dolly to man handle that baby upstairs.

My brother was my first customer on this shining star, and I embroidered 14 aprons for his son, who owns a restaurant in Missouri.

This new machine balked a few times (learning curve), so phone calls to the dealer and a bit of screaming on my part, as I watched the screen tell me “check the top tension or the bobbin tension, before finally getting that tension properly balanced.

Sewing buffs, you know what I mean. What’s up with that! Which one do I adjust!

Well I looked in the book again and decided the bottom bobbin was my first go to in correcting and balancing the tension. What you need is a balance of top thread showing and only about a third of the top thread showing on the bottom of the garment. My personal tension, on the other hand, was all the way to a 10 on the Richter scale!

Finally, the dealer told me never to touch the bobbin tension (even though it is clearly described in the book). Now they tell me! They regret the book gives you that option.

I purchased a new bobbin to finish my project & learned (vowed) to never touch the bobbin thread case again. I will only turn the top three tension indicators knobs to appropriately make adjustments.

Since there are four tensions adjustments (three on top and one on bottom) for the machine, I learned a few days ago what steps to go by in adjusting these tension knobs.

Whew! What an education. The top tension, I was told to adjust, made all the difference in the world. Yea! Success.

I’m like a dog with a bone, I just don’t give it up until the lady sings. Such a learning experience and it’s not over yet. However, I am not as intimidated any longer with this new piece of equipment, which tried to buffalo me. No-siree, I’m in control and she purrs like a kitten … wonderful!

For now, I have been pulled away from my loving embroidery passion to help my husband with our last phase of house renovations, which has bordered on a nightmare. We are upgrading our existing home and running into so many areas that are not squared. My husband says studs are not on 16” centers, plus leaky toilets. We have pledged to do whatever we can to make our home look square and pretty.

We’ll be content to say this will be the last upgrade and have a blind eye to any imperfections. lol. I really am excited with a mental image of the results, so it will be worth the efforts.

I did squeeze in a small embroidery job and sewed our initial W on a table runner in gold metallic, which had existing gold thread in the material, and it turned out awesome. Sewing with metallic thread is extremely tricky, but my new machine took it in stride.Happy trails to you.

ONCE UPON A GAME…Playing Bridge Activates Brain Cells

Welcome new guest blogger Carolyn Wedel. She and I met at a bridge club. She told me she was an avid reader and, sometimes writer. No surprise we struck an immediate friendship. She shared some of her work. I thought her articles would make fun blog posts and convinced her to become regular blogger. Enjoy her first Once Upon A topic below and then be sure to check back on Tuesdays for more tips and thoughts from this multi-talented lady.

ONCE UPON A GAME…Playing Bridge Activates Brain Cells

A Guest Blog by Carolyn Wedel

Do you like to challenge your brain? Do you like to play cards? Do you like to interact with others?

Research shows playing challenging card and domino games can stimulate brain cells. I’m on board with that.

I grew up playing cards. My early beginnings were Canasta, then as an adult, I learned to play the domino game called 42.

One of the characteristics of 42 was it has trumps. Before I learned about 42, I had no idea what a trump was. It sounded foreign to me.

After playing 42 Dominoes, I discovered the game I dearly love to this day, which is called Bridge.

The person who introduced me to the game said it had trumps. Well, I knew what trumps were, so I thought how hard could this game be?

I laugh about that comment today. Bridge is by far the most brain challenging card game out there.

Bridge is not hard once you learn the basics, but it is challenging.

Playing Bridge requires you to focus, stretch your brain cells, and interact with others. Since I’m a competitive person, this was right up my ally.

Did you answer yes to any of the questions at the beginning? If so, I highly recommend you find a bridge club near you and start playing bridge.

You can choose to play socially, called Party Bridge, or competitively, known as Duplicate Bridge. But either way, your brain cells will grow and you’ll make lifelong friends.

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Carolyn Wedel’s business life is over (retired) and now she applies her computer skills for the Bridge Community. She is an avid player of games and sports, which included riding English Dressage competition. She is a Certified American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) teacher and earned the level of Bronze Life Master this year. Another love she has is the needle arts…embroidering towels, apparel, and other items, with mostly a bridge theme.

And with a little time left over, she cooks for her husband.