BERNINA 770 ALTERED

 I discussed this with my Bernina Dealer and today I took my 770QE in to get it altered.

I've been disappointed with the machine for several reasons.  But, I also love some of it's features.

The thing I thought was giving me grief was the 9mm wide feed dogs.  They just were not made to sew scant 1/4" seam allowances.  I thought about buying a different machine.  But, I realized there was a Bernina 720 that is exactly the same, but has 5.5mm feed dogs.  After discussing it with the technician, we concluded that the feed dogs could be switched out.  So we did.

I now have 5.5mm feed dogs on my 770.  And it seems to be working great!  No more sucking the fabric down.  No more not pulling the fabric through.  No more not sewing straight.  I just have to remember to not ask it to zigzag at 9mm wide!

I'm happy.

Plus, she showed me how and where to clean the lint from the bobbin area.  

ON THE GOOD SIDE

 I sewed the flange binding onto the back first, then flipped it over to the front and top stitched it down using the 10D 'stitch-in-the-ditch' foot on my Bernina.

A WALK IN THE SNOW

 We finally got out of the house and made it down to Lincoln Park for a snowy walk in the park.  The snow is about 5-6" deep, dry but crunchy.  It's cold, too!

I made it a short walk because it was too cold and I was worried about slipping and falling - even though it wasn't really slippery.

Jelly wore her little coat and ran around and looked to be having fun.

There's a little tree that people put Christmas ornaments on every year.  I wanted to see it with snow on the ground.  That didn't happen before Christmas, but it finally did (the day after).

Last week, I noticed the dead-looking tree leaning precariously, and the ground around it starting to rise.  Well, it gave in and fell sometime over the weekend - and it's left a big hole right on the trail.

Seen:  the reddest, red of this Redwood - it looks great in the snow.

It's a beautiful morning!

Afterwards, Darrell took me and my machine to Renton to Sewing Machine Service to get it fixed.  And, they did it while we waited.  They said that the needle plate was mis-aligning - and I don't have any idea how that happened - and I don't know why I feel guilty about it.  It might have happened when they serviced it last week - or not.

Here's how yesterday's fabrics turned out --

LUNCH WITH MOM

 Today was the first time in over a year that Mom, Julie and I met for lunch in a restaurant.  We are all vaccinated and things are starting to get better around here.

I went to Quality Sewing before we met to use my 40% off coupon to buy a foot for my Bernina.  I ended up getting two - an Edge Stitcher and the new version of the #37 quarter-inch foot.  Expensive!

Then since I arrived a little early to Bahama Breeze at Southcenter, I parked and sketched this motorcycle next to me.

Then we had a very pleasant get-together enjoying our lunches.  I had the Paella, but I couldn't bring myself to eat the mussels (I don't like clams either).  So, the dogs enjoyed them when I got home.  Mom and Julie really liked their mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon.

QUILT LABEL

 I forgot to show the label I made for the October 2020 Tablerunner.  And you can see the matchstick quilting I did with the walking foot on my Bernina.

OPENED THE BOXES

 After all the rain yesterday, this morning was bright and clear.  

The tide was higher than I have every seen it, right up to the bulkheads.  Jax completely lost his mind and began barking at the waves.  He went out onto the logs floating in the water and had a great time.  Jelly and I watched with amusement.

 After the walk I went up to my studio and cleaned my old Bernina 1230, gathered up all of it's accessories, boxed everything all up and put it all away.  Then I unboxed my new Bernina B770QE Anniversary Edition. It came with a bundle of goodies including a trolley (not shown), an accessories bag and a soft cover, all in black with gold trim.  It also came with a tin full of gold scissors of all sizes and a gold rotary cutter and a gold plated ruler foot and a gold plated number 1 foot.

It doesn't fit into my sewing table, but I added some pieces of wood under it to bring it up high enough that I can use the table that came with it.  Hopefully, someday Darrell can fix the table so that it will sit down inside it.  

It came with some crappy white polyester thread on the bobbin.  Instead of unwinding it all, I ran down to McLendon's Hardware and bought some cotton clothesline and made this basket, using up the bad thread.  It took longer than I thought, but I love it.  I might make some more.  I was thinking I could even dye the cotton rope.  

Then I changed the foot to the Patchwork foot and sewed together the blocks of  my Halloween table runner to see how it would all work.  There is definitely a learning curve to get the quarter inch seam allowance right.  But, I must say, this machine is very intuitive and easy to understand - except for all of the inner computer settings - that will take some studying up on.  It came with some free classes - I'll have to look into that.

ON SALE

It was pouring buckets of rain this morning.  The dogs actually refused to go for a walk.  I went by myself and got soaked.

When I got back, I took the Carolinas quilt off the machine.

Then, I couldn't help myself.  There is a great sale going on Berninas and it ends today.  I drove down to the Federal Way Quality Sewing and Vacuums and test drove a few of the Bernina models.  I had done a lot of research beforehand, and I think my mind was already made up on the B770QE Anniversary model.  It comes with a lot of goodies.

I had to go back to the Tukwila store, where the warehouse is, to actually pick everything up.  It all barely fit into my car.

Darrell took all of the  boxes upstairs for me.  But I didn't open them.  I wanted to get the binding on the Carolinas quilt first.  It's the last job for my beloved 1230.