Tuesday 13 January 2009

Are you a MAC or a PC?


I came over all of a dither this afternoon when I read the latest newsletter from Jessica Schick at Digi-Tech. I am now listed as one of the pattern designers on her site ... and I'm not overly sure what to make of it. I'm excited and bewildered somewhat too - probably because its another step out of anonymity. Its also been a real flurry of activity for me over the last couple of days too as I sent through a number of patterns for her to look at. Technology laid us foul though as we discovered that a .dxf (drawing exchange file) does not exchange so well when you have a MAC talking to a PC. I am a MAC user - I love my MAC - I even loved my MAC when I worked for IBM - oops! They are fantastic machines that just do! No fuss , no nonsense - they just get on with the job and look pretty too. But they dont talk to PC design software - I discovered. Well that may not be true. I have been corresponding with some software developers to see whats what, so maybe - just maybe we might be able to parlez soon.




In the meantime I have hastitly had to download a trail version of Adobe Illustrator and learn how to use it so I can send patterns over to her - configured in a way that the myriad of computerised quilting and embroidery machine software out there can read. In the past I haven't had to do this - so this was novel for me too. I have what I would call the MAC equivalent of a computerised quilting machine - an Intelliquilter which has a different operating system to other brands (so to speak) but guess what - they dont talk to each other either! The IQ software is really quite sophisicated and does a good deal of thinking for you. You dont need to tell it for example, what quilting path to follow (unless you want to of course) - it will work it out for you. Other machines need to be directed. Anyway as you can imagine, I have had to do some fast learning. I've a-ways to go but its fun and I have some ideas in my head for new and better designs - I'm not thrilled with the three that went on line today but I figure its a start and its better to have something rather than nothing. You can see these designs and more from some wonderful designers at Jessicas site - www.digitechpatterns.com and you dont have to be a digital guru to use them - Jessica converts all the patterns she lists for in a full range of quilting and embroidery machine formats as well as paper patterns and downloadable PDFs.




3 comments:

Trudi said...

I loved your designs, don't put yourself down, its lovely to see an english quilter stepping out into the lime light. Well done you. I fell upon your blog searching for other UK quilting bloggers, really enjoyed reading your blog. I'll be back soon

Tracey said...

Thankou Trudi .. thats so nice. I'm working on the condfidence bit!

scottiedog said...

I had to laugh - I am a mac - and I loved my mac when I worked at IBM as well!!!!!! (North Harbour) Its a small world!