Let me clarify before I have more people jumping to conclusions.

My post, which you ELECTED to read was not aimed at any of the wonderful inspirational women I’ve met on the forum. I’m very good friends with a lot of you and consider myself friendly with the rest. (I mention very good friends with some because we talk in chat, I read their blogs and we email occasionally)

My Post, in my blog, was about the countless people who email me each day. It was about the people who leave incredibly rude comments about me personally, the work I do, or the videos I post, none of which happen to be the people on the forums.

Do I think I’m better than anyone reading this? No, I don’t. I never said that. I’ve never thought it even because that’s not who I am regardless of what people want to think. I was writing in my blog, which I’m not forcing you to read.  I was writing to inform the people who are looking into purchasing this machine and looking for the problems it has because no one mentioned them when I spent every penny I had so I could do something I love.

I was addressing the people who feel the need to tear me down in comments and emails on a daily basis. They’re the people who think this machine is perfect because they don’t seem to care about even stitches, tension, or anything else other than getting one quilt off so they can put another on.  If I didn’t care about those things either then I’d say this is a fantastic machine.

I was not spitting in the faces of the people who tried to help because God knows I am grateful. I am glad to have met so many wonderful women who always offer suggestions and recommendations on making this machine work better. I have tried everything. I’ve listened to advice, I’ve tried things that I know won’t work just because my friends told me I should.

Just to clarify one last time, unless you own a voyager and have left me comments or sent me emails about how you can make it work for your purposes sloppy and inconsistent though they may be then I was not talking to you. I’m sorry if you thought I was, as it was never my intention to upset people who I would have gladly called my friends.

I’m not an expert, I never will be and more importantly I don’t want to be. I want to be a guy who enjoys what he does which used to be posting on this blog and reading the blogs of my friends. Pretty much everything negative I’ve said about this machine has been on this blog and you didn’t have to read it, and now you won’t have to read anything anymore.

I don’t care what the people from the voyager group say about me in comments or emails, but when people who I consider my friends assume I would ever say anything to hurt them or marginalize their own abilities that hurts. When they assume that I think I’m better than them, that hurts.

I’m not better than anyone reading this right now. I was just trying to update the people who wanted to read on what I was doing and maybe vent. I post about the machine so people don’t make the same mistake I did and yet again you opt to read.

I’ve tried my best to be friends with several of the people who left very rude comments which were about me, I’ve even tried to help them when they needed it even if it wasn’t about quilting. I didn’t do anything to the people I considered my friends and still they assume that I have a superiority complex and what I wrote was about them.

It wasn’t, and one last apology just for the hell of it if you thought it was. I’m sorry.

All that said this is peace out y’all for the last time. This isn’t fun for me anymore. I started this when people told me I should because they wanted to read and I no longer want to write. You won’t have to hear the griping anymore, you won’t have to take time out of your schedule to send me emails or post comments about what an asshole I am.

I guess it sort of sucks, but whatever, that’s life. I do have one request. I’d appreciate it if people keep their problems with me off MQR. This has nothing to do with Suzanne and the wonderful place she’s set up for us. And as I said in a PM earlier tonight I’m sure she would appreciate her members not harassing me through PM, as I’ve kept my opinions on my blog which by the way you elected to read.

Peace out y’all

This was fun to deal with

In case you’re wondering, yes, that’s a thread goober. Please note that my machine didn’t sound any different while this was happening, it gave me now indication that it was vomiting up thread all over the place. I didn’t know until it jammed and my thread snapped.

People think I’m unjustly hard on this machine, but I’m really not. If I was slapping pantographs on everything I’m sure it would be fine. If I didn’t care about stitch length or tension it would be fine. If I liked really jerky movement on the frame itself for no apparent reason it would be fine.

Someone posted a comment comparing it to an Audi and a Lexus about if I would expect the same things from each, and you know what? I really wouldn’t. I would however completely expect that if I was in either car I could get from point A to point B without the God damn tires falling off, the air bags deploying for no reason, and the gas tank exploding all at the same time.

I’ll be the first to admit that I complain about this machine frequently and it’s not because I want something to complain about, trust me I have a hell of a lot more than this going on that deserves more attention. I’m not complaining, I’m informing. I’m writing this because when I was looking for a machine I saw nothing negative. When I asked about doing the things I wanted to on this machine I got thumbs up across the board because all the people using it said they were doing the same kind of quilting I was. Because they totally rocked a custom job on their nine patch customer quilt. They can run every thread, they never have tension problems and the frame itself is as smooth as a baby’s ass.

The truth is that those people weren’t doing anywhere near the type of quilting I do. They weren’t running every thread because they found one that worked and stuck with it, they don’t care about perfect tension and they sure as hell aren’t doing anything where you would be able to notice the frame just spazzing out for no reason at all.

When I at first very nicely mentioned my concerns I got “OPERATOR ERROR” over and over again. And you know what? It’s not operator error because I know what I’m doing. I know how the machine works and I sure as hell know how to quilt. I got called impatient and inexperienced and it still pisses me off because it was coming from people who do sloppy inconsistent work. It’s not me, it’s the machine.

I still can’t run a cotton thread without having crappy tension. I still can’t perfectly backtrack to my liking and yeah a lot of that is because I’m a complete perfectionist, but it sure as shit isn’t made any easier by a FLAWED machine. It’s not a matter of money either because I spent about ten extra dollars after I got my machine and it ran ten times better. This is a case of a company putting out a substandard machine, on a poorly designed frame and that is that. Everyone says that you get what you pay for and I’m saying that this machine isn’t worth anywhere near what I paid for it.

So the reason I keep complaining about this. The reason I keep posting about it is so that one day another man or woman who searches online wondering if the Voyager is a decent machine for the money they can read this and give it serious consideration because in my opinion, on my blog, where i can say whatever the hell I want it’s not worth it even if someone pays YOU to take it.

Off my soapbox.

P.S. Micro Stippling is still stupid.

woo hoo.

Nearly finished one corner.

When I write a book I’m going to have a whole section about how micro-stippling is stupid.

The thread from hell

Seriously, this thread must have been born and bred in Texas or something. It shredded like nobodies business, I soaked the whole cone in silicone, i changed tension, i changed needles, i prayed to jesus and then finally it just started working perfectly.

yay.

Terrifying.