New Toy

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a sewing machine that also does embroidery. I went for the Brother Innovis 4000D which is their biggest embroidery machine for the home sewer. When I went to the store a couple of other customers were looking at similar machines and getting a mini-seminar on how they worked. I couldn't see the benefit to that as I had already done a lot of research so I asked the sales woman to write it up without a long sales job. The only tricks she showed me were how to thread it (a neat little robot-like thing does the hard work) and how the bobbins get wound while you are sewing.

I was signed up for a class to learn how to use it which runs for 12 hours over three weeks. Since I have to bring my machine and all the accoutrements to each class, I have decided not to set it up in my sewing room. It is now taking up most of my kitchen table... not a bad location as long as no one else wants to eat in the kitchen with me. Note the candle for when the power goes out during all the thunderstorms we get here. Also note the Hello Kitty container I got in a Happy Meal that I am now using for thread trimmings.

Since I got it home, I have been spending time playing with my new toy. I cut up an old Oxford Cloth shirt that had some nasty stains and have been having fun. The close up below shows the stuff I have been doing. The piece of fabric at the bottom of the picture has become a doodle cloth and I have been trying out stitches and embroidery designs. I have combined patterns, increased and decreased designs and strung designs together. The piece under the needle in the upper right is a design I picked up free off the internet. It's very pretty in many shades of blue and I wanted to try something lacy. On the left is what I would call Surfer Mickey. Brother is very proud that they have an agreement with Disney but the user is penalized as there is very little you can do to customize the designs. All I could was change the colors so I used a varigated orange thread. Scary! I wonder what else I may learn in the class?

I thnk I better put these into some project soon or the house will be full of machine embroidery experiments. On the other hand I could stash them with the hand embroidery pieces I have waiting for just the right project. Works for me!