What kind of machine do you sew on?

OK - today's the day! I was speaking to Patti Carey (who was our guild's guest speaker last night) and she asked me - what have I been hinting at? I made her a promise that I would reveal my "new role" today. But then I read something this morning that just solidified that today is the day.

Let me do a bit of preamble and after all that fuss I made, you may find it anti-climatic.

I follow Moda's blog. Well - March is National Quilting Month. Yeah - the whole month of March. Apparently every day Moda has a theme (the themes are in the blog post) and you can post your pictures on Instagram with the appropriate hashtags of course. Yesterday was all about introductions - which I didn't do because I didn't know about it.

Today, the topic is - sewing machines. See how I was waiting for the perfect moment! I unpacked this huge box which has been sitting in my studio for a month. I know - a month. I'm crazy!

Yes - that is a brand new PFAFF creative icon sewing machine.

creative icon sewing machine by PFAFF

Notice what brand it is? If you know me well, you know that I've been a Husqvarna Viking girl forever! I still have my first Husqvarna sewing machine and I use it for retreats and on Monday. It was top of the line 20 years ago and cost $6000 which I thought was crazy to spend that much money on a sewing machine.

Yes - that says PFAFF!!!

 Not only is it the top of the line sewing machine, but it's an embroidery machine as well. And last time Ronda was here, she said, wouldn't it be nice if I could get my Halloween quilt done for Halloween. I could, but I need to do some more embroidery.

Embroidery unit for the creative icon 

Let's not forget that on the opposite side of the table is the top of the line sewing machine for Husqvarna Viking. Although it looks similar to the Designer EPIC (the embroidery machine), it's the EPIC 980Q with all the features of the Designer EPIC, but no embroidery capabilities. I spent a week blogging about it on QUILTsocial. Here's the link to the first post for that week.

EPIC 980Q by Husqvarna Viking

Let's not forget that I have my Designer Ruby Royale deLuxe which is an older Husqvarna Viking sewing machine that does embroidery. It's set up for piecing at the moment.

Ruby Royale sewing machine - this one is MINE

There are a couple (OK - there are three Husqvarna Viking machines and a featherweight) of other Husqvarna Viking sewing machines (mine) tucked away as backups should I need.

So what's going on here? Well, I'm taking on the role of an Educator for SVP Canada. And what does SVP mean?  Singer, Viking, and PFAFF. That's where I was in January. I was on an education week learning about the machines and helping to set up curriculums for inspiring others through educational seminars. Isn't that exciting? As an educator, I get the use of one of SVP's top of the line sewing/embroidery machines. Since I know very little about the PFAFF line, it made sense that I get the one that I know the least about. It also means that I have a ton of samples to make or pull out from various corners of my studio.

The hardest part has been to dedicate some time to take it from the box. Now that it's out - I have to start sewing on it so I can familiarize myself with it. But I want to fire up the embroidery unit right away and get working on the remainder of the embroidery bits for the Halloween quilt.

What does this mean for me? I'll be doing trade shows in Canada for SVP, visiting dealers who run the quilting/embroidery/applique seminars. Teaching/talking/playing - right up my alley. One of the things that I've learned in my almost 20 years of quilting is that the BEST way to learn anything is to teach it to someone else. I know that sounds weird, but it isn't. I've had to learn lots to keep ahead of the students. Heck - I'm still learning and now I get to learn with the best toys while I dabble in all sorts of cool techniques.

It's a freelance job so that's right up my alley. Not a huge time commitment as far as the teaching goes, but lots in the learning department. It shouldn't add too much of a workload once those samples are compiled, but it means that I should be playing more!

On that note, I'm out of here to take pictures to post to Instagram of "my" machines!!

Have a great day!!

Ciao!