I love my new sewing room!

It's always so strange when you move into a new house and despite all your furniture and 'stuff' being there, it doesn't automatically feel like home. We've been in the new house just over a week now and I almost can't believe how quickly we've settled in. There is still a little bit of arranging and organising to do (not to mention the enormous ironing pile) but we've definitely got things to a very liveable standard and the arrival last night of the fur-child Coco, just topped things off.
The part of this house-settling I have enjoyed the most has been organising my sewing room. We've moved to a house with one extra bedroom that the last, which means Mama gets her own room! Maybe I could call it the Mama Cave??

180 Stitches plus three fonts

Just before we moved I purchased a Bernina Aurora 440QE and the embroidery module to go with. Due to our busy schedule I had barely even used the machine and the embroidery module was still in its box! Yesterday, I finally had everything set up and spent the most wonderful afternoon playing with my machine. I started with a stitch sampler. Sounds easy enough, but with 180 different stitches plus three fonts of alphabet - it took me ages!! I was so bored by the end but now I have a good idea of the scale of the various stitches and the automatic sew function (which means no pedal) was fantastic.
Finally I was onto the fun part - embroidery. I got the module out of the box, then quickly decided I should read the manual. And I did. Probably for the first time in my life, but now I actually do know how to use the machine and will hopefully remember what I've read so I'm able to get the most out of it in the future. So machine embroidery. Never thought I'd be one to use it, but I love it already. I can't wait to get into my creative groove and produce some fantastic quilts, garments, etc. What fun. Here are the two samples I did last night and this morning. The variegated thread is probably not the best choice for these designs but I was just playing around.

I also love the website emblibrary.com. It has fantastic, reasonably priced designs that can be easily downloaded in any format. Winner! I've just put in a big order of fabrics from thefatquartershop.com and when that comes in I'll be at it. Hmmm... now just to get the ironing done before I get stuck into some real projects!