Thursday, October 23, 2014

Portable HP Printer and Custom Sizes



PRINTING CUSTOM SIZES ON AN HP PRINTER


Not long ago, I went searching for a laptop.  I need one when I go on little trips or vacations.  I have an IPad, which I love, but it has some limitations.  So I purchased a little lap top.  I weighs less than 2 lbs.

I also needed a small portable printer.  This would be great for travel and I thought I could use it to teach an up coming Inklingo class..... but as it turned out, I didn't get to it on class day....and that's another story.  So I purchased an HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer because that's all they had in small printers.  I could have just not purchased any printer that day and gone on line to find something elsewhere ( I need custom sizes and HP wasn't likely to allow for it.) but I'm the impulse sort so I bought it.

HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer
I took it home and all worked OK.  Putting in the cartridges proved a bit of a chore, but I got it print ready.  Custom sizes was grayed out just as I expected. (My old printer was an HP).. The printer comes with a little bit of instructions but even though it appeared to allow custom sizes, I couldn't figure it out just how I was expected to do it...so I went on line and up pops a number of possibilities... most of them from people asking the same questions I had with no good answers.  The best one I found after a Google search was for a totally different HP Printer, but it gave me enough information so I could work it out.  I can now print custom sizes on my HP.  I'm thinking if it worked for me, it may work for other Inklingo enthusiasts with HP Printers.

So HP owners who want to print custom sizes give this a try.



Let's say you would like to print 7" x 7"....

1. Go to the page you want to print...current page...actual size.
2.  Go to Properties then Features.
3.  Down in the middle of Features pick custom.
4.  At custom at the top of the page you will see the word custom...you will have to rename it...I'm printing a 7" x 7" sheet of triangles so I rename it Triangles 7 x 7.  Then click Save.  Click OK.
5.  You are now directed back to features.  Your size is displayed.  ( I would check "show preview before printing") Click OK.
6.  You are now back to your main print page and you have your correct size.

This is much more complicated then the Canon I use with my Desktop PC, but it's do-able.  So big smile here.  I can now take my printer on vacation or to class along with my little laptop and I'm all set to print out my Inklingo custom size pages.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Hexagon Table Topper


Hexagon Table Topper
The Pioneer Women (I've mentioned before) meet once a month at Quilt Heaven (LQS) in Lambertville Michigan.  Some of our projects use English Paper Piecing.  I enjoyed English Paper Piecing at one time but once I started to use Inklingo I saw how much faster the projects got put together.  

 Allie's Garden from Cut Loose Press is an optional project.  Rather than follow the instructions, I looked at the project and saw that the pattern called for one inch hexagons.  Using Inklingo's 60 Degree One Inch Hexagons shape collection,   I put this  little project together while watching programs on TV with my hubby in the evening.  It came together very quickly.  The part that took the longest was choosing the colors from my stash.  The pattern calls for adding a row of hexagons after the colored hexagons and then cutting them off to make a straight edge.  With the One Inch 60 Degree Shape Collection, I could add half house hexagons all around.  


From Left to Right: From Linda Franz' Inklingo 60 degree 1 inch Hexagon Collection.
 One Inch Hexagon with the additional shapes
half house, other half hexagon, quarter corners, and third.

On each corner I added a half hexagon.  



Corner showing the use of Inklingo other half hexagon plus the colored strips
When I added the Hexagon other half to the corners, the size was large enough to allow for the use of strips.  I cut the strips 1 inch wide by 9 1/4 inch long and then drew my stitching lines in a quarter inch.  Worked beautifully.  I don't care for the idea of cutting off hexagons after sewing and I think those strips add that little extra touch of color.  



Embroidered Center
The center of the table topper is hand embroidered.  I used some hand dyed no. 12 embroidery thread that I've had around for over 10 years.  I think it came out too light.  If I do this topper again, I'll use a darker thread.