A New Baby in the House

It's time to tell you about my new Baby Lock sewing machine.  We've spent the last few days getting to know each other and I must say that I've been impressed at every step.  There are some very clever features and so far nothing at all disagreeable.

You can read all the particulars on the Baby Lock website, so let me just highlight the quilting features that I've discovered so far.  There are several dedicated piecing and quilting stitches.  One adjusts the needle position to insure an exact 1/4 inch seam on the right - or if you choose on the left.  There is a small stippling stitch which would be great for fill quilting a small area.  It would be too dense for a large part of the quilt.  There is a pivot feature.  The machine stops in a needle down position and lifts the pressure foot slightly so you can pivot the fabric.  When you start to sew again the foot is automatically lowered.  It will automatically cut the top and bottom threads if you choose.  It comes with a straight stitch foot, but these features created a great stitch without changing the feet.  It also came with a walking foot, free motion foot and a whole array of feet I haven't begun to figure out.  There is an optional foot that would be great for piecing like was done on step five of Easy Street.  It will sew and trim the fabric in one motion resulting in a sewn and trimmed seamed all in one.  There is a ton of storage in the flatbed.  I was able to fit all the feet, a seam ripper and 10 bobbins.

Today I played with the embroidery for the first time.  I've never ever done machine embroidery, so I was pretty proud of the result.  There is room for improvement, but the accomplishment of figuring it all out just from the book felt pretty good.   I think the number spacing looks off, so I'll have to work on that next time.

This was three separate patterns all stored on the machine.  I was able to edit the patterns on the machine to come up with this and then embroider it all together.  It also accepts a USB stick or will connect directly to the computer, but I haven't gotten that far yet.  It addition the machine came with Embroidery Works software.  Haven't looked at that yet either. 

Today we had a snowy, stormy day - great weather to stay inside and play with the new Baby.