Okay, I’m officially in LOVE with this machine, from top to bottom and side to side. Oh, BTW, I just want to point out that I did NOT buy a sewing machine, no. This is a “sewing computer!” Really, it says so in the manual. Nowhere does is say “sewing machine” when referring to this “thing,” and since it has a USB port and something that looks suspiciously like a PS2 port, it’s obviously not just stuck on itself or being snobby. Maybe that’s why we already get along so well, since I’m admittedly somewhat of a confirmed techie girl. Anyway, to continue…

I’m officially in LOVE with this sewing computer. Right now, as I type this on my laptop computer, the machine sits here stitching away on a nice little bird embroidery design, and it’s the laptop computer that’s controlling the stitching. This embroidery unit that goes with the Bernina 440 works hand in hand with the Bernina Embroidery Software EditorLite on the laptop. I opened the embroidery file (which I just purchased online this morning!), changed the thread colors in the design to match what I had on hand here and wanted to use, and told the software to write to the sewing computer. Another program called the PC to EC (Personal Computer to Embroidery Computer) opens up automatically, and makes the link to the embroidery unit which is hooked to the Bernina 440.

At this point, you can move the design in the hoop, zoom in or out, Read the rest of this entry »

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Here’s a pic of my friend Nadine and I at the BFQ Guild meeting last Friday evening:

What was especially funny about this? We were probably both thinking “The meeting is fun, but I can’t wait to go home and play with my new Bernina!” Each of us had just purchased the Bernina 440 (me that very day, her exactly three weeks before), but we had not had any time together to share the news when this picture was taken! Nadine stopped by the blog to read the latest the day after the meeting, and was so surprised to hear that I bought the Bernina, that she said, “as we say in German - had problems to close my mouth again…”

Nadine took my machine quilting class a few years ago, and bought the Pfaff 2056 in December partly because I had it, and because of some of the features the machine had. She never fell in love with it for machine quilting, but I didn’t know it. So she made the decision to buy the Bernina 440, and she is now happy with both machines. I think I will be the same: using the Bernina for machine quilting, especially the free motion, and using the Pfaff for piecing and machine guided quilting since it has the IDT (or dual feed). I also bought the embroidery unit for the Bernina, to replace the Pfaff 2124 sewing/embroidery machine that I sold!

So, 2 Nadines + 2 Pfaff 2056 machines + 2 Bernina 440 machines = 2 great minds thinking alike!!

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I did it! I bought the Bernina 440 with the BSR! Now, as of this moment, I’ve truly had very little time to play, since I picked it up on my way to the Black Forest Quilt Guild meeting last night, and it was very late when I got home. Then this morning, I taught the first part of the Machine Quilting - Master the Basics class at the Gussy Goose. I do want to share some of my first impressions with you, before I go and play this afternoon.

It’s interesting that when you buy a machine like this in Germany, they don’t open the machine and set it up and run it before they hand it over. When I worked for a Pfaff dealership in the States years ago, they would set the machine up and run it at high speed (unthreaded) for at least an hour. The called it “sewing it in,” and no machine left the store without this first sew in. At least you knew, when you got it home, that it was going to work. The dealer handed me my Bernina, and the box still had the plastic straps on it from the factory, so obviously that kind of thing doesn’t happen here. Not a big deal, I suppose, but I did have this vision of opening the box and setting the thing up and finding something wrong last night, and then not being able to fix it until today or Monday.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the machine though, Read the rest of this entry »

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