Month: April 2014

Machine Embroidery: Error Message – Brother Designio Series DZ820E; Can not recognize the data

Aynaria 2 Comments

Yesterday, my Brother Designio Series DZ820E arrived. Of course, I wanted to open it up immediately, but I was hanging out with my daughter. In fact, my daughter finally asked me to open the box. Besides hanging out with my daughter the honeybees kept me occupied (for a bit) so I didn’t get to test out the new embroidery machine until last evening.

My first design was testing out the text letters that come pre-loaded on the Brother Designio Series DZ820E embroidery machine. I selected the letters to spell my daughters name. It stitched beautifully without any issues.
Brother Designio Series DZ820E Error Message 1

However when I loaded a design from my computer to a flash drive and then tried to upload to my Brother Designio Series DZ820E I ran into problems. It wasn’t recognizing my files.

I received the following Brother Designio Series DZ820E error message…

Can not recognize the data. The data may be corrupted.

Brother Designio Series DZ820E Error Message 2

Thankfully, yesterday, I’d seen someone post this same message at the machine embroidery forums where I’m a member.

The Fix

What was the problem? My flash drive was too large, it was 64gb. From my what I read the flash drive needed to be small, no more than 4GB. Some people also stated that they needed to insert the flash drive while the machine was off. Earlier today, while I was out I stopped by the store and purchased a 4GB flash drive. I loaded my file onto the flash drive and was able to retrieve my embroidery file. Hooray!

 

Here’s what I made with my Brother Designio Series DZ820E.

Brother Designio Series DZ820E - Ducky 1
Embroidering with my Brother Designio Series DZ820E

Ok, so it’s hard to tell what I’m making at this point, right?

Brother Designio Series DZ820E - Ducky 2
My Brother Designio Series DZ820E is a bit faster than my old (Brother SE400) sewing/embroidery machine. It still runs as quietly, just like the other one.

Keep watching and it will become clear. Can you figure it out yet?

Brother Designio Series DZ820E - Ducky 3
One lucky duck…

No? Well that’s fine here’s what I made! I’ve always loved ducks. This is the Rainy Day Duck from the Embroidery Library. It’s free until 4/30/14. My only dilemma is trying to decide his final destination? Perhaps he’ll appear on a bag, t-shirt applique (for some deserving youngster) or perhaps he’ll adorn a quilting block. We’ll see…

Adventures in Beekeeping; Picking up my package honeybees

Aynaria 2 Comments

This morning, at 8:00 a.m.

 

Getting the honeybees

 

I was at Miller Bees, picking  up my package honeybees.

Millers Bees - Bee Chapel

Do you see that? It’s an actual beehive!

Package Honeybees - 300

There were 300 package honeybees set out in a large garage; Italians and Russians. I picked up my two orders of package honeybees and off we went. There were about 10 honeybees on the outside of the wire cage, but I told my daughter we’d be fine. They weren’t aggressive and they were trying to surround the queen.

Honeybees - Package Bees Installation_Queen
There’s the queen. This is a recycled photo from last years honeybee installation

The queen is new to these bees and so she’s in a tiny cage within the crate. If you want to read the story behind the above photo, go here, in that post I write about last years installation of my the package bees that were installed into a Warre hive. Last year, I was a first time beekeeper.

Honeybees - closer look.04.29.14
See the honeybees on the outside of the little cage? They weren’t concerned with us at all and they were busy trying to get inside the cage and stay warm.

It was a chilly morning, so these bees weren’t quietly moving about like the bees last year. They were in a tight huddle.

Checking out my Honeybees
Getting a closer look at our honeybees. On average you receive about 12,000 – 15,000 per honeybee package. These honeybees are calm, hopefully they’ll continue to be this way.

This morning, I believe it’s too chilly to move them into their new home. I’ll wait until early evening to move them into their new home. Here’s hoping they stay!

Machine Embroidery: Brother Designio Series DZ820E

Aynaria 5 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about sewing, but the recent flurry of activity making costumes for my Lutheran chuches Passion Play has pulled me in again.

Currently the last pieces of the costumes are doing their final tumbling act into the washing and drying machine. Then they’ll be pressed, hung, labeled and sent off to church where they will wait until this evening  at that time they will clothe the backs of the actors who will be wearing them for this evenings Passion Play performance. I must say that I’m thankful that the Passion Play is behind me.

Embroidery machine thread
Machine embroidery thread

Now that that chapter is closed, it’s time to open up another sewing chapter, but to do that I need to stop dragging my heels and upgrade my sewing embroidery machine…

Brother-Designio-Series-DZ820E-Embroidery-Only-Machine
Brother Designio Series DZ820E

Say hello to the Brother Designio Series DZ820E Embroidery Only Machine! It’s an upgrade of the PE770 that has been available from Brother, but with a new look and quite a few extras tossed into the mix. This embroidery machine also has a bigger hoop size; 5X7. Hopefully, I won’t outgrow that too soon. My old embroidery machine actually did sewing/embroidery but this one is embroidery only. What will I do with my old machine? I do believe I’ll be giving that one to my daughter. I’d planned on doing this last year, but since I held off upgrading my machine she had to wait also. My newest machine should be here on Saturday. The machine embroidery I’ve wanted to do embroider was naturally a width I could not do with my current sewing/embroidery machine since it would only embroider up to to 4X4.

I must say, this new embroidery machine comes at a perfect time. I’m off of work this coming Monday & Tuesday. I can’t say that I’ll have a ton of time to embroidery since my daughter has play dates (both days) at our home. Whatever was I thinking about, eh?

No Sleep ‘Til

You want to know something? Besides a two hour nap (yesterday afternoon) I didn’t go to sleep at all last night.My brain as to wired! I guess, I’ll crash sometime today after I get home from work.

Four day weekend; disconnecting from technology

Aynaria 4 Comments

My goodness has it been busy. I’m actually a bit tired today. Yesterday, was my day of buying food for the ministry that my Lutheran church has at the homeless shelter. Yesterday, I felt like my brain had gone on vacation.

First…

I locked myself out of the SUV before I picked up the groceries. Thankfully, I was at the house and was able to use the spare house key to get inside the house, search for and find the extra key, open the door and everything was fine. That’s the first time I’ve locked myself out of a vehicle since I’ve been driving; so about eighteen years.

Second…

The Homeless shelter food list was left at the house.  While I was driving away, I remembered…”oh I forgot the food list!” Back to the house I went to retrieve that list. While in our yard, the SUV died and so I hopped in the other vehicle.  Sighs, yeah yesterday was one of those days but I can’t complain. Came back home and the SUV started, no problem.

The Passion Play is winding down, woohoo! No more costumes to sew! I love sewing, but I want a break.

So yeah… I’m really looking forward to the upcoming weekend! More honeybees are coming my way during this Easter holiday and I’ll be off this coming Monday and Tuesday!

While off, I’ll be dialing back the technology interaction a lot! At times we need to take a big break, you know?

I can completely relate to what the lady is feeling in the video. I really dislike when people are so wrapped up in their technology gadgets that they completely ignore the people they are with. If you’re going to spend your time on a device, please don’t ask to spend time with me. I enjoy interacting with people without their technology gadgets.

My Totally Raw Thursday challenge

I’m making some type of raw banana cookie in the food dehydrator!

It’s getting kind of hectic

Aynaria 4 Comments

Where did this past week go? Besides my busy work week, when I arrived home the sewing of Passion Play costumes was on my mind, material was in my hands as I fed it to the my Brother sewing machine.

Of course, by the time I was sewing, the material had been washed, cut and eventually the fabric started looking like robes from a time long past and then something happened. Hours later, after dutifully feeding the fabric to my sewing machine I feel in love with the sewing process again. Sure I like sewing, but this past weekend was different. I reconnected with an emotion that I haven’t experienced in a long time with sewing and I do believe that sewing will be competing with weaving and knitting. Guess what? I stayed up until 3:15 a.m. Saturday morning, sewing! The good news is the bulk of the sewing for the Passion Play was finished and that only leaves the extras;  a vest, belt and one head piece. That will be completed within the next few days.

Because of my busy schedule I didn’t get around to posting a Totally Raw Thursday post, but I will be doing so this week.

Avicii – Hey Brother

Aynaria 2 Comments

I love this song and really like that it’s pro military. I don’t agree with all the wars that the United States has been involved with throughout the years

However, I do realize that the freedom that many of us take for granted would not be ours without some of those wars. Regardless of whether a war is “right” or “wrong” it still doesn’t take away from the respect that I have for most that serve within the military deserve.