Today was a really good day. I woke to sunshine instead of the what has become norm wet, cold and dreary weather. I got up with a mission in mind.

Little was I to know that a new sewing machine from Husqvarna head office had arrived downstairs.

I opened the box in excitement. Yes i know i have enough machines to sink a battleship now, but they still get my blood pumping thinking about what i’m gonna do on them. Yes sad i know but at least it doesn’t hurt me or anyone else and gives me hours of amusement while keeping me from nagging the family.

I only intended to sew a bit of fabric to get a feel for it. Jamie at head office had sent it because it is the one that the students i’m going to teach at the festival of quilts will be using. Well some three hours later and feeling totally inspired i came back up the garden from the studio with my head full of ideas and a virtually finished piece of work. The three hours had just vanished. I had sat down and set the machine for free motion stitching placing a scrappy piece of pelmet under the foot and just going for it,  drawing what ever came to mind with the machine. This happened to be a tiny replica of the owl i had designed the previous night to work in Gold work. I surprised myself by finding it quite easy to just stitch it directly onto the fabric without drawing any guidance lines.

The new machine behaved beautifully and i was really impressed with it especially as it was a mid stream machine when i usually work on a computerised higher spec type. If you are looking for a class machine that is lighter to travel with or just a good every day machine that does everything needed for patchwork, quilting and creative embroidery this machine is a good starting point and wont break the bank. I would feel confident letting a beginner through to an experienced student loose with it and they would both be able to achieve their goals using it. It has 15 embroidery patterns included which are all really nice patterns to use and programming them is simply press a button.

It also sounded good which does make a difference when you are going to work on them for several hours. Incase you are wondering which model machine it is check out the pictures below.

Red rayon machine thread Free motion stitched design

Used my Acrylics watered down to add diluted and muted colouring as i didn’t want to loose the strong red lines to the design

In the end i made up small pieces which were then cut out round the design and arranged back together in a collage fashion. I just need to embellish with a few well placed seed beads and then mount it in a simple clean format A good afternoons work considering i was just having a quick play.