We tell our kids to always try their best and their hard work will be rewarded, but sometimes life gets in the way and things don’t work out like we planned.  More often, the work we did provides benefits in ways we do not expect.  It is like learning a new sewing technique and using that technique years later in the “perfect project” that you would have never envisioned at the time.

I have a funny (and exciting) story that I just can’t wait to share!  You all know that I’m a HUGE Bernina fan so I was delighted when, last summer, they asked me and several other designers to take their new 780 machine for a spin and then use as much social media as we could to talk about our experiences.  We’d get to try PaintWork, CutWork, and CrystalWork, and in the end one of us would win a 780!  So, last fall, I spent two crazy weeks creating a variety of projects that would show off the truly spectacular features of the 780.

Harlequin Table Runner with trapunto and CutWork embellishments

Medallion Pillow with embroidery

Improvisational Photo Album Cover with CutWork embellishment, embroidery, couching, and free motion quilting with the Bernina Stitch Regulator.

Fizz Pillow with CrystalWork embellishment

Christmas Mantlepiece Decoration combining embroidery and PaintWork.

PaintWork Leaves

I talked about them here, and on Facebook and Twitter, but I knew that Bernina was also interested in videos.  After all, they had sent flipcams for us to document our experiences and I had a twelve-year-old camera man at my side who loves any type of machinery.  But after sending the machine back I realized that my sound really didn’t turn out well.  What’s a girl to do?  I had made a commitment to Bernina to document everything as best I could, but there was no way the videos made sense without the accompanying sound.

But I had made a commitment and I was DETERMINED to get those videos done.  I was just going to have to take all the footage I had and edit it, adding text and looping music in the background.  The designing and sewing was easy but oh my – the video was hard because I was completely out of my comfort zone.  There were tears.  I almost gave up and abandoned the video aspect, but I knew that, in the case of the 780, seeing is believing so I just kept plugging away.  I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but it took me two weeks to sew the projects and another two weeks just to edit the videos because I was learning how to do it as I went.  Bernina creates such professional videos and I was worried mine wouldn’t measure up, and they really don’t, but you do get a really good idea of the 780’s capabilities by watching them.  With the help of my 12-year-old assistant, we eventually edited them together and then created a YouTube channel to showcase them.  They aren’t perfect, but my assistant and I worked really hard on them and the fact that we that we persevered and got to the end meant a lot to us!

So you can imagine my surprise when Bernina emailed me right before Market to let me know that I WON A 780!!!  I was not expecting it AT ALL!  Can you believe it?  Seriously?

So yesterday I went to Sew Much Fun, my local Bernina dealer, to pick up my 780!

My new friend and me.

A view of the left side of Sew Much Fun – it is huge!

A view of the right side of Sew Much Fun

Here are my assistant and I getting ready to unload the embroidery module from the trunk of our car.  (Thanks, assistant!)

I have it all set up in the front room and am ready to sew.  It has been a pretty exciting week!

Thanks for letting me share my good fortune!  Thank you Bernina!
Happy sewing!

P.S.  For those of your who have been asking about the new patterns, that is my next post… promise!

Aren’t you enjoying reading all the Market recaps that are out there in Blog World?  It was great being there but it is still fun to look at the pictures because you can’t possibly take everything in while there!   I’m working on getting a post ready to show new patterns, etc. but I thought I might give you a sneak peek ahead of time of some of my work by showing pictures of my booth, right across form Blend Fabrics/Anna Griffin.  (Please excuse the picture quality – I’m realizing that the camera on my phone has seen better days.)

This Market I had lots of product to display in a tiny space so I decided to use color to unify the look of the booth… aqua and green were the order of the day.

I debuted my book Modern Holiday… you can see the cover quilt on the back wall and some of the smaller projects on the shelves.  I also debuted two fabric lines with Blend Fabrics – “Bonjour, Mon Ami” and “Holiday Bouquet”.  And five new patterns including three quilts, one zippered bag, and one set of a table runner with placemats! Four of my five new patterns were sewn in “Bonjour, Mon Ami” and Kona cotton.  The fifth was sewn in Bella with a few Vanessa Christenson and Kona cottons thrown in.  I’ll be working on sewing some of my Modern Holiday projects in Holiday Bouquet this summer and will show some of that here – can’t wait!

My fabric lines were also displayed across the way in the Blend Fabrics/Anna Griffin booth.  Thanks to all the people at Blend for doing such a fantastic display.

“Bonjour, Mon Ami” (The bargello quilt is a free project on the Blend Fabrics website!)

“Holiday Bouquet” sandwiched between “Spooktacular” by Madue Ashbury and  “Hip Holiday” by Josephine Kimberling. The complimentary pattern is on the right – it has Christmas trees on the bottom and is really cute, so check it out.

Blend Fabrics even made accessories in “Bonjour, Mon Ami” to match!

Because I was also debuting an embroidery collection with Brewer Sewing called Modern Blossoms, all of my project incorporate spaces for just a bit of optional embroidery – nothing heavy.  Of course, you can also use feature prints if you don’t have an embroidery machine.

“Soda Pop” in “Bonjour, Mon Ami” featuring my Modern Blossoms embroidery collection.

Oh – and I can’t forget my booth-mate!  Cherry Guidry of Cherry Blossoms had the booth next to me.  We also roomed together.  We met through a friend who knew both of our work and thought we’d get along great.  Cherry and I have the same birthday, we order the same food at every meal, and we both think it might be a good idea to start a 5-year Dear Jane quilt together, so I guess we both might be a little crazy, but we are big fans of each other’s work.  Look at her cute forks and spoons and her adorable bike quilt!

Soda Pop is a Brewer exclusive quilt that was also displayed in the Brewer Booth specifically designed to showcase the Modern Blossoms embroidery collection.  They showed it in solids and I sewed it in prints – and it was great to have both so that people could see the different possibilities.

Brewer even made up a special tin to house the threads used in the embroidery collection!

I’ll be back later in the week to show more detailed pictures of projects and patterns, but I couldn’t wait to share.

Happy sewing!
Amanda