Trends, Trunk Show and my new machine!!

NOTE: There are TWO posts today, this one and another on where I review new threads. Make sure to read the other post too!

Monday was sooo much fun-I presented a portion of my trunk show at Meissner‘s in Sacramento, right after Hanspeter Ueltschi of BERNINA talked to the audience about upcoming developments. Hanspeter Ueltschi (“HP”) is the 4th generation Owner of BERNINA so it was quite an honor to share the same stage.

I seem to always forget to take photos OF the audience or class and oops, did that again. The audience was enthusiastic and eager to hear what we all had to share and we all enjoyed a fun and informative morning.

Jennifer Gigas, Meissner’s Sales Manager, was fresh off the plane from Houston’s Market and brought back tons of ideas and information on what’s new in the industry. Here are a few of the trends Jen spotted:
-Color-lots of bold and bright colors in solids and large-scale prints.
-Curves-real pieced curves with all manner of tools and tips to piece them plus lots of clever straight-piecing that fools the eye to believe that there are curves.
-Accucut is hot and there is new software for embroiderers to use with the Accucuts.
-Cool new upscale hardware for totes-cool enough to maybe make me a bag maker.
-Tuffets. Meissner’s is bringing in an instructor to teach a well-kitted class on this.
-Meissner’s is bringing to the Sacramento area international teachers, among them:
………-Paula Naedelstern!            Jan 26/27th, 2017
………-Amanda Murphy!              Date to be announced
………-A new Hoop Sisters!          Date to be announced
………-Angie Stevenson!                Date to be announced

HP spoke passionately about the BERNINA brand and its future and place in the market. You may not know that BERNINA is a privately-held, family-owned company and apparently the 5th generation is being groomed to take over when HP retires. BERNINA is the only European-manufactured domestic machine and HP spoke a bit about the 5-year plan for the brand. It was subtle but did he hint that there may be a new overlock machine in the near future? I love how he summed up his job: “I make women happy”.

There were a few distinguished attendees in the audience, including Dillon, the newest Future BERNINA Ambassador (that is my guess, Mom did not confirm that!). Isn’t he adorable?

And yes that’s the long-awaited BERNINA ruler foot (#72) for domestic machines on my machine! Locals, call Meissner’s to see if they have any in stock and put it on order if not. I haven’t had time to play with it yet, I’ve been a little pre-occupied because….

I bought a new machine-a limited-edition Rose Gold 765 BERNINA! She’s so preeeeeety! And there she is already in place and working. I can’t believe I did this. I’ve finally succumbed to the idea that it would be worth the learning curve and expense to get a “stretch” machine with a longer throat to accommodate my larger work. Last year at Craft Napa Meissner’s provided stretch BERNINA 730’s for our classroom and they were divine! That was my first taste of how wonderful it would be to have a “stretch”.

My summary of what I like most about the 765 and why I upgraded:
-the longer harp area
-the lighting is fantastic
-the bobbin is huuuuuuge
-integrated dual-feed
-the interface is very simple and intuitive-love that
-the “eco” button is back!!! The eco button allows you to essentially shut  down the machine yet it keeps all your settings with just a wee bit of electricity. I looooove this feature.
-it’s a little faster than my current models
-better thread delivery system than my current BERNINA’s
-and now that I have sewn and free motion quilted a bit on it, oh it runs like a charm-quiet and smoooooooooth! I did a little piecing with it and it has better visibility and more accurate delivery of the fabric so my piecing instantly improved.

It comes with a choice of packages and I chose the embroidery package. Yes, this old bag is going to learn to embroider! I will probably not make that my forte but I can see the beauty of being able to integrate embroidery into my work.

And the icing on the cake-HP signed it AND it is the first Rose Gold he has signed so at my request he wrote “#1” on it. Kinda cool huh?

I had been thinking about an upgrade and decided I wanted to make a run at this machine after my Trunk Show was over. I had previously talked with Meissner’s and had my price, so I knew what I was in for. I wanted that 765 so I packed up my trunk show and headed home to talk with the DH. He was in his Man Cave and I went up to talk with him about it and we agreed that it was a good idea. Welllll, he was a little more reluctant than I…

He summed it up by saying something to the effect of, usually, when you go out for a gig, you come back with money, you don’t SPEND a bunch of money. His parting shot, “This one did not go well for me. I’m going to watch reruns of the Cowboys game now”. Giggle. We do always concur on major purchases and this one was indeed a Big One. It’s been a year of Big Ones so I was grateful to be able to purchase this machine.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m working on with my new machine. There will be some layering involved with other fabrics. And yes, I’m piecing by machine-had to try out my new machine! Stay tuned for more. Don’t forget to read today’s other link about thread. And I’ll be posting again to Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday where there’s always a great linky party.