The machine and I

There she is, finally in her home place after a trip to Arizona and back to Utah after her arrival on my birthday.  She mostly rested in Arizona.  I was too excited to leave her behind in the box in Utah but once removed from the packing I mostly felt dread.  The first time I turned her on it sounded like a plane ready to take off.  I quickly pushed the off button.  What if I were to damage this expensive machine.

Finally a few days later after turkey and all that I put the instructional CD in my computer, cruised through the how to manual, and turned her on again.  There was a RPM control all the way up and things quieted down once I moved it to the left.  I threaded it, gingerly loaded the fancy bobbin (holds 80 % more thread than the common bobbin), and proceeded to play with all the fancy stitches and alphabets while the rest of the family napped.  I still felt intimidated.

I had a quilt top ready for quilting.  I brought the new machine home with that in mind.  Guess where I found myself?  Yep, in front of my trusty 30 year old Bernina 830 with walking foot feeling my shoulders burn and shoving fabric through the harp because it was still too scary to initiate that new Bernina 750 QE.  Would I just have to leave it be until scheduled classes in January?

When it was time to return north I made a brave decision.  I packed up the 750 QE and left the 830 in my Arizona sewing room.  I also packed a box full of Christmas projects.  It would be do or die.  There would be no Christmas presents from Grandpa and Grandma  if we did not become working partners.  I'm proud to announce that we are making progress.  The manual is in that open drawer and I am constantly referencing it. We've bordered some quilt tops and even machine quilted a small quilt.  There are things sewn and stuffed.  Yes, every day it gets a bit better and now I'm wondering how I ever lived without the automatic cutter and needle down and dual feed and 10 inch harp.  And that bobbin, 80 % more really is nice.  I'd show you more of the projects but my granddaughters have discovered and now read my blog.  I determined that my machine is a her.  Any ideas for the grand dame's name?