Breaking it in.

I've been sewing on a Euro-Pro denim and silk sewing machine for the past 12 years.  It's been a great machine.  It was a gift from my mom when I graduated from college and she made sure that it was built with solid metal pieces.  It's been great.  But with the recent onset of sewing mania over the past few years, I could tell that this particular machine wasn't really built for 3-4 hours of daily sewing!  An upgrade was well deserved.

The world of sewing machines is vast.  It's hard to navigate and figure it all out.  I wouldn't have wanted an exclusive or fancy quilting machine because I love to sew clothes for my girls and need to be able to put little sleeves into little dresses.  Not all of those fancy quilting machines can do that.  And then, in the back of my mind I just had a feeling that no matter how much research I did, or how many quilting shops I visited, I would ultimately find my way back to Bernina.

It's really just the basic, entry level Bernina, the 330 to be exact.  But it has already out performed my old reliable, and that is simply impressive.  I will always love the old Euro-Pro and the journey we took together into the world of sewing.  But I can see that this new machine is going to help me keep going for many more years to come.  Not to mention how excited I am about the six mastery classes that come with the purchase.  The first one is tomorrow.  I'm really excited :)

To get familiar with the new machine before my first class, I decided to sew up a series of pillows for my oldest son Henry's new bed.  He inherited our old bed.  It's sort of a season for upgrades around here.  Anyway, while we wait for the bedframe to arrive, I thought I would spruce the bed up a bit.  He's entering those tween years.  He's half a year away from being 12.  Yikes!  He's grown past wanting a "theme" to his room, but I needed a direction for my little brain to create from.  He's the most avid reader I've ever met.  To see my son discover the world of books and reading, and love it maybe even more than I do, has really been something.

 I decided that "books" and "reading" would be my theme as I thought about what pillows to make for him.  I've long admired this Anna Maria Horner fabric called "Volumes".  I'd read somewhere that it's supposed to look like a stack of books.  That was the first fabric I ordered when I knew I was going to make new pillows for him.  

Anyway, here's what I came up with over the past few days.  I could add more, but let's be honest, he's almost a 12 year-old boy.  This is already about five pillows too many...

The finished ABC pillow (inspired by the Etsy shop called Pillow Factory) which is only on loan to his bed for now.  I love it so much I want one in every room of my house!

The confetti pillow is his favorite.  He was disappointed that it didn't get made in the bigger size.  I was scared of all those circles, so 20x12 was all he got.  Inspiration taken from the spring issue of Stitch Magazine.

And finally the "volumes" pillow.  Nothing very fancy about this one, except I did try for the first time doing an "invisible" zipper closure.  As you can see, it's not so invisible.  I will try it again for sure.  I can tell that if you could get good at this method, it might stand a chance at dethroning my all-time-most-used pillow zipper tutorial!

I followed THIS tutorial for the invisible zipper insertion.  I'm anxious to try it again soon.  

Until next time...