Machine Embroidery Lesson

Today Elaine and I went to Topeka to the Bernina dealer for T-N-T 2008 or embroidery tips and techniques. The class was taught by Kevin, a Bernina educator. He was quite knowledgeable about the machines and the techniques, but his delivery was hard for me to attend to for six hours. There were a lot of colorful, maybe off-color, statements between him and the more youthful members of the audience. We sat with three other ladies at the machines to complete the embroidery techniques. One of my tablemates and one at the next table were friends and spent a great deal of time talking very loudly to each other. My ears are not as good as they were when I was younger, so I have to listen carefully to hear someone at the front of the room. It was fun to meet some new embroidery friends, see Joan and Suzy--old friends, have a few times during the day to check out new fabrics and patterns, and get some new embroidery ideas.

I enjoyed knowing more about the Bernina 640 that was at our table, found out some new techniques, and learned about several new-to-me products--like 606 a permanent spray used in machine applique and aquamesh plus. One new idea was to embroidery the tops of tall boots. The secret is to find a boot that has a zipper the goes into the arch area so the top can be flattened for embroidery and the bottom of the boot must be held during embroidering. One of the patterns used on towels was a mola design. They looked great on the towels. One suggestion was to do test-stitchouts on felt because it is so cheap and if it distorts, the design needs some work. We did get a CD of the three embroidery projects. One project was started with fabric paints and then had embroidery added--it was only a discussion project because it takes 12 hours for the paint to dry. I would rather have had a hand-on project.

It is always fun to have new ideas to think about.