My new baby

Recession? What recession? lol I got a new sewing machine. Move over to the other five in my collection....there's a new girl in town! I got this BabyLock Espire.

I have a Pfaff 2044 and there was nothing wrong with it. I just took it in for service and walked out with this one. Eeegads, I've got no spine! LOL Actually, I used a machine like this at a retreat in Apple Valley over a year ago and really loved how it sewed. Of course, they try to sell you the machine you were working on but I wasn't willing to pay what they were asking at the time. I'm sure there's a newer model so that's probably why these were on sale. I financed it.....all by my little ol' self. So far, I'm loving it. It's got lots of bells and whistles and I don't know how to use them all but so far I'm loving the cutter, leg lift control and auto foot control. I have a class scheduled to learn the ins and outs later this week. Here's a peek at just some of the stitches.

They wanted to give a credit for a trade in but I didn't want to give up my Pfaff. I've heard horror stories about new machines and wasn't going to give up my old one. Plus, my daughters sew so I'd just assume hand it down to one of them. I told the saleswoman I would go to Goodwill and buy one if I had to trade it in. She said not to bother. She would just tell them trading in my machine would've been a deal-breaker. And she wouldn't be lyin'!

Last night I sandwiched one of my UFO's. This one is a little short on the sides to be a queen size but I'm going to use it on my bed anyway. Guess I'll have to buy a bedspread and then lay this over the top. That's what my sister said she did and I never even noticed. Works for me.

I love the stars and the seminole border, but with all of that going on, it was hard to figure out something that worked to make it bigger. I know the book had a bigger size quilt in it but I bought fabric to make the single size and couldn't find any more of the fabric even back then. I think this top is a couple of years old already. It was just waiting for perfect quilting. But I'm doing it so it'll be far from perfect!!! LOL
I have this stencil but it's just a little bit too small. I got it at a quilt show, Long Beach I think. Luckily it has the sticker on it so I went to the site, www.quiltingstencils.com and got an 11" one. I like the way it looks on a couple of the blocks.

It doesn't fight with the stars.

So over the next few nights, I'll try and stitch in the ditch around the sashing to anchor it. That way when the stencil comes in the mail, I'll be ready. Hmmm, I should make some sandwiches to practice these puppies until the big stencil comes in. Now there's an idea!! :o)