It’s here at last! The Horn Quilter’s Dream cabinet for my Bernina 830 that is.

The good news this morning – the cabinet had arrived at Sew from the Heart. The not so good news – both Noel and Keith (SftH’s amazing tech team) are on vacation so it couldn’t be delivered until next week when they are back. Now that was a problem! And every problem has a solution, right? I can drive a van, and I’m pretty strong. So all I needed was someone else with some muscle and the willingness to put it to good use. And into the store walked John – an 830 owner with muscle and the willingness to help!

This thing comes in a REALLY big box! Weighing in at 180 lbs, it’s not an easy task to move it around.

Anyone paying attention would have noticed that one side of the box had written on it in pretty big letters: “Open Here”. It took us a while to figure this out – having already opened the box on the other side and removed all of the packaging materials, of which there was a lot!

Finally it’s out, and all the packaging has been removed. 60″ wide and 19.5″ deep at it’s smallest.

With the back flap up, it extends to 39″ deep.

With the front flap up as well, there is an extra 16″ of depth – just where you need it most for quilting the larger quilts. This is a neat design – open the draw and an extension table fits right on top.

If you’re going to do embroidery, the machine sits right on the top, with the airlift table in the top position.

Push down on the machine, and the table lowers to position number 2. Now everything is level for regular sewing and quilting. A cutout (that bit is still to come) fills in the gap around the machine so that a continuous surface is created. Changing the bobbin is going to be interesting – I’ll have to see how visibility is when my cutout arrives.

Push down again and the airlift table goes all the way to the bottom. The machine is now nicely stored – with a full sized insert to fill the hole.

Now I’m really ready for some serious sewing and embroidery!

Last week I finally got my very own dream sewing and embroidery machine – a new Bernina 830. As well as being a masterpiece of Swiss engineering, this is one big sewing machine! Add the embroidery module onto it and it’s even bigger. The jumbo hoop (an extra – but very essential in my opinion!) has the largest embroidery area of any hoop currently available for the home embroidery market.

When I brought the machine home it became very clear to me that I was going to have to do some rearranging in my quilting studio – which is also my living room!

Tuesday morning of this week – this is what my studio looked like:

My Bernina artista 200 is in the corner on a portable cabinet that has been extended on the left and behind by the addition of a couple of shelves. The cutting table is a free standing kitchen cabinet from IKEA – the perfect height for working at! It has been buried under “stuff” for a really long time. The portable cutting table gets moved around – and when it is open and in the middle of the room, there’s not a whole lot of space to do anything else.

Even the 830 box has “stuff” on top of it and is surrounded by bears, blankies and Jasmine’s new scooter.

On the other side of the room is the sofa – which hasn’t been sat on in months due to the fabric that is piled up on it – and in the corner are the wardrobes that contain my fabric stash. Heather’s scooter is propped up against the french doors. We’ve been getting out and about on the scooters since the weather cooled down – but you can probably tell that none of us (that would be Heather, Jasmine and myself) are very good at putting things away when we are finished using them!

After picking all the kid stuff up off the floor and transfering it to the playroom, the sofa was moved down a bit and the fabric stash wardrobes were moved to their new home – in the bedroom. That created enough space to move the portable cabinet minus shelf extensions for the 200.

Now there is enough space where the portable cabinet came from to move the cutting table into the corner.

This kitchen cabinet cutting table is one heavy piece of furniture, even when empty. It is, of course, full of stuff, and I was not about to empty it, so after a good deal of pushing and shoving, it finally found it’s new resting place.

I love open spaces – but they don’t usually stay open for very long! This is the space that the new cabinet that fits my 830 is going to fill. As of today, it has been shipped, so hopefully it will arrive on my doorstep of Monday or Tuesday next week.

I have found that if you contemplate a “problem” long enough, a solution will emerge. The “problem” in this case was what to do with all the fabric and other stuff that was burying my sofa.

The solution was to organize the contents of the cutting table cupboards which made plenty of room for the fabric which is now neatly folded, with all the small scraps saved in a zip-lock bag. The added bonus is that my stabilizer is now also organized and easily accessible!

Two mornings of work, and this is what my studio now looks like:

The cutting table is fully functional for cutting – not a thing on top of the 24″x36″ cutting mat. The storage underneath is organized (you’re going to have to take my word on that since I didn’t take a photo!), and underneath the whole thing are all the quilts that are waiting very patiently to be quilted.

The Bernina 830 has been moved into position – waiting for its’ cabinet to arrive before I unpack it. Although with the weekend coming up, that might not last!

The 200 is ready and waiting if I should need to use it. And it’s also ready for Heather to use if she should get the urge. All the accessories are neatly arranged on the shelf which was moved over from the other side of the room.

The sofa is finally back in action as a place to sit – and I did actually sit on it for a few minutes this afternoon! There is even a pillow that came out of the cutting table where it was taking up way too much space!

It’s good to know that my vacuum cleaner still works – not a scrap of fabric or a piece of thread to be seen on the carpet – and I can guarantee that will not last for very long!

I’m back, and more or less recovered, from 4 nights in Houston at International Quilt Market. This is definitely the place to go to find out what is new and exciting in the quilting world.

Quilt Market takes place in the George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston. When Market opens, you see all the beautiful booths showcasing their products. Everything is in it’s place, the carpets are laid and there isn’t a storage box to be seen. The day before was a different story, that I would like to share with you today!

Quilt Market opened at 9:30am on Saturday morning, October 10, 2009. The convention center opens two days before hand so that exhibitors can come in and create their booths. Noon on Thursday saw the Aurifil team waiting for their crates to arrive. A frustrated message went out on Facebook later that night – the crates had finally arrived at around 8pm, and a whole day of set up had been lost. Since I had no plans until my School house at 4:20pm on the Friday, I offered to lend a hand in helping them to get set up. Aurifil is after all my favorite thread!

9am on Friday, and two enormous crates are waiting in front of the Aurifil booth. A couple of tables are set in the booth, and the standard pole set-up is in place, waiting patiently for some drapes to make it look somewhat presentable. A carpet has been layed – a necessity if you want to retain feeling in your feet while standing in a booth for 3 days in a row.

The biggest of the two crates contains the booth walls that Aurifil uses to replace the standard drapes. And I must say it looks a whole lot nicer! This crate is locked with a padlock, and easy to open as Alex (Aurifil’s Italian Product Manager) has the key.

The smaller crate contains thread – lots and lots of it!!! It also contained the toolbox with all the tools required to open the crate which is well and truly bolted closed. Someone had a wrench – which took care of some of the bolts, but not enough of them to be able to open the crate.

This is where I decided to make myself useful – by going off to find some tools! Fortunately, the Brewer booth (who was hosting me) was just up the aisle, in even more chaos at that point in the day – with a tool box full of tools! So one fixed wrench and one adjustable wrench later, followed shortly by a hammer and a mallet, and all of the bolts were finally removed.

One thing I have learned about getting set up for Market – if you want to make any changes to the structure of your booth, you must have an “official” person do it for you. So down came the poles, and up went the Aurifil booth walls, nice and new and black – and covered with footprints!

Cleaning is not usually one of my strong points, but footprints on walls just have to come off, so out came my pack of wet wipes (I’m a Mom, and given the messes that the girls and I get into I should probably carry wet wipes with me more often) until Elena handed me a much larger towel and spray bottle of cleaning liquid.

From this point on, a remarkable transformation happened. Gradually thread stands emerged from the crate, and thread found it’s way onto the stands. A couple of beautiful quilts were hung on the (newly clean) walls, and the most gorgeous 1kg cones of Aurifil thread found their way into various places for decoration. Table cloths covered the tables, and a beautiful booth had been born.

I’m sitting at gate C2 of terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport – waiting for my flight to Houston to arrive. I’m on my way to Fall International Quilt Market, which happens every October at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Hundreds of exhibitors and thousands (hopefully!) of quilt store owners come together to find out what’s new in the quilting world.

I’m excited to be going to Quilt Market in Houston for the first time. On Friday I will be doing a “schoolhouse” called “Embroidered Applique for Beginners”. It’s a great opportunity for me to show store owners and their representatives all about what I do, and give them a brief overview of how to do it. I have 30 minutes to talk – and enough to say to fill up about 3 hours! A few lucky people will be able to walk away with a ready made sample – a couple from my Jewels in Chocolate CD, a couple from my new Hearts CD.

Saturday and Sunday you will find me in the Brewer booth with demos at 11am and 5pm on Saturday, and noon on Sunday.

If you’re there I’d love to meet you!

Now it’s time for boarding. More from Houston later!

All classes were lots of fun, with lots of happy students! The Dudes filled their classroom to capacity for Quilted All Over and had one student who was unable to make it in. No Hands Piped Binding this afternoon had my first Mother/Son duo taking a class together.

I got to the gym twice this week – and would have made it a third time on Saturday morning, except a friend called just as we were about to leave and suggested a playdate at the train park (the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ). We decided to take advantage of the cool after the previous night’s storm to go and play – although it did get a little steamy later in the morning!

One more week to go before heading out to Cleveland on August 31 to tape a 10 minute segment for Quilting Arts TV on September 1. And so much still to be done!

The quilting on the Hearts quilt is finished – it’s now just waiting to be bound. Pam and I were able to stitch out all 6 of the small hearts and 2 each of the 6 medium sized hearts in a very productive day on Tuesday. So this week there is a lot of finishing to do, as well as quilting the Jewels in Silk quilt.

Classes coming up this week are part 2 for both Digitizing for Beginners at Sew from the Heart on Wednesday, and Quilted All Over (peacock feathers) at 3 Dudes Quilting on Thursday. Wednesday evening I get to go to Sew from the Heart for the second time that day to give all the staff an overview of what version 6 of the Bernina Embroidery Software has in store.

And not to be forgotten – I need to write the directions for the project I will be presenting on Quilting Arts TV!

The girls are back in school and loving it; the Calico Cutups in El Mirage had fun with Spirals and are looking forward to doing Feathers in early Fall; Nina McVeigh and Embroidery TnT were wonderful; and Bernina Embroidery Software v6 is packed with new features!

Jewels in Silk is now pieced and waiting to be quilted. Taking a sharp photo of the silk has been somewhat challenging, but I had some success while the quilt top was hanging at Sew from the Heart during Embroidery TnT on Wednesday.

It wasn’t until this afternoon that I got to work on quilting the batik Hearts quilt, and that only because my class at 35th Ave Sew and Vac was cancelled. After some in-the-ditch stitching to anchor the quilt (and get rid of most of the pins I used for basting) I started to do the background quilting around the actual hearts. I love the way the embroidered applique “pops” up when the background has been quilted. It really adds a stunning finishing touch to the embroidery.

So that’s what happened last week! Now for what’s in store this week.

Going to the gym and taking a daily vitamin supplement have been sadly neglected during the summer months and I’m beginning to feel the effects. Now that the girls are back in school, getting back into some sort of routine will be much easier. And when I take good care of myself, my quilting improves! So my aim for this week is to visit the gym at least 3 times, if not 4, and to start taking my vitamins again. Even if I have to come up with some sort of chart to remind myself to do it!!!

Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday are all teaching days. Digitizing for Beginners part 1 at Sew from the Heart on Wednesday. This group will get a sneak peak of v6 of the Bernina Embroidery Software, so I’m very excited about that and hope that they will be too. Quilted All Over part 1 (Spirals) at 3 Dudes Quilting on Thursday. This is always a fun class – I love to see the progress people make over the 3 sessions. No Hands Piped Binding also at 3 Dudes Quilting is on Sunday. Another fun class, especially when people finally get how the binding comes together.

That leaves Monday, Tuesday and Friday for quilting and Saturday for having fun with the girls. Can I finish quilting the Hearts quilt this week? Time will tell! Given that I’m flying to Cleveland on August 31 to tape a 10 minutes segment for Quilting Arts TV on September 1, and I’m demonstrating how to do Embroidered Applique using my Hearts designs, the quilt had better be finished by the end of this week! Tuesday is going to be a marathon embroidery day, assisted by my friend Pam. The theory behind this is that if 2 of us can do all the embroidery I need for Quilting Arts TV in 1 day, then the rest of the next 2 weeks can be spent finishing it all off – mainly quilting.

School starts again tomorrow – and I have a busy week ahead!

Monday I am headed to El Mirage and the Calico Cut-Ups chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild for Quilted All Over 1 – Spirals. It’s been over 6 weeks since I’ve been out and about as a Traveling Teacher. It will be good to get back into the swing of things.

Tuesday is my only day at home to “work”, and it could be tough deciding what needs to be done first. The blocks for Jewels in Silk are all finished and waiting to be put together. Then this will need to be quilted – and the batik Hearts quilt is also ready and waiting to be quilted. The Hearts quilt will probably win as this is going to be the pattern cover for my new Hearts CD.

Wednesday is Embroidery TnT with Bernina Educator, Nina McVeigh, over at Sew from the Heart. I’m really looking forward to spending the day with Nina – getting to know her, and soaking up some of her knowledge. I’m also really looking forward to being in a room with 10 Bernina 830 sewing and embroidery machines!

Thursday and Friday is Bernina Embroidery Software V6.0 training, down in Tempe. Rumors have been floating around about all the new functionality – can’t wait to find out about it and try it out in some new designs.

Saturday will be me and the girls hanging out together, relaxing and having fun!

Sunday is a Jewels in Chocolate workshop over at 35th Avenue Sew and Vac, Northern store. Haven’t taught there before, so this will be a new experience.