I have been dying to blog all week about my new Baby Lock Symphony! The girls are on vacation this week and we have had driving school, dance and music stuff going on too. Any spare few minutes I had went to rearranging the sewing room and trying out the new machine.

So….the call came on Tuesday that the sewing machine was ready to be picked up! I had to wait until the next morning to get it as the place was closing in an hour and the shop is 40 minutes away with no traffic. I could barely sleep that night. I dropped Amanda off at the driving school the next morning and was at the shop when it opened!

When I got the Baby Lock Symphony home, I realized that the base of the machine is too wide to fit in my Sew Ez table. This is ok though because that table doesn’t have a whole lot of extra room. When I quilt there, I need tray tables set up all around it to keep the quilt from dragging. I folded that table up and stored it for when I use my Brother machine or travel to a retreat. So, that presented the problem of where to put this new, rather large machine with the awesome extension table! Definite first world problems, I realize this.

I pulled the wooden desk that had been in my bedroom into the sewing room and set it up there. Yes, I now use two tray tables for a desk in my room now. LOL.

Here she is all set up!

Thus far, I have threaded her, wound bobbins, played with the decorative stitches and tried out the free motion features…

Yesterday, I started quilting the background of the art quilt with free motion straight lines…

And I can honestly say, I am IN LOVE WITH THIS MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish you could have seen the frustration I had with the old machine. The thread would break and shred every two inches. It’s no fun to rethread the machine 25 times in one morning. Unfortunately, the Viking Sapphire machines have this issue and once it starts, they don’t really ever get fixed the way they should. It’s infuriating because I paid $1,700 for that machine plus $125 for the walking foot plus extensions tables for both a regular table and the Sew Ez. That’s a lot of jing-aling-aling to be disappointed. The fabric store did inform me that they dropped the Viking line because of these issues and the fact that those machines have issues.

Back to the Baby Lock…this machine is a dream to work on. I sat and free motioned for hours yesterday, never once having breakage. The machine has a nicer feel than the Viking. It feels…luxurious. I’m not kidding. It really does. The automatic threader works great, I love the pivot function and the auto snip. I really love that big extension table. I love that the applique, 1/4″ foot, open toe fmq and echo fmq feet all came with it and the walking foot too…among a bunch of others…It came with 17 feet, a circular attachment and an extra bobbin case. Yup. Love this.

I pondered whether I should get the next machine up which was a sewing/embroidery combo when it was offered at a ridiculous price to me but I believe I made the exact right decision for my needs. This is a quilter’s machine all the way.

Ok…so now I’m wanting to go sew again. Here are a few things coming up. The Summer Postcard Swap sign up is happening now. Email me at sewsandi8@yahoo.com if you want in. I’ll be drawing names to pair up at the end of the month. Postcards are due to your partner by the first day of summer, June 21st.

My next blog post will be a treat! I have some photos from my husband’s aunt, Elaine, of some beautiful quilts that her grandmother made. I have to do some uploading and editing and then I’ll post them.

Also, I am trying out this Sullivan’s Silicone Sewing Spray while I free motion. The fabric store swears by this product that is used in place of the Supreme Slider. It is an odorless, stainless, no gumming silicone spray that you spray on the back of your quilt and/or machine bed and it makes the quilt glide around for easy free motion. The can was $10 at the store. So far I like it. I have a Supreme Slider but I’ve stitched through it and I hate having to tape it down to the machine bed. I will try this spray for awhile and see if I like it enough to keep with it.

I’ve bent your ear today enough…let’s go sew something, shall we?
Oh and my machine needs a name. You know I love naming my sewing machines!!!!
Suggestions?