Sewing machine review - Queen Bernina

This review is part of a group project for the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog to develop a user's review of all different types of sewing machines, both new and old. The questions are theirs, the answers are mine.

What brand and model do you have?

Bernina Artista

How long have you had it?

about 2 years

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?

way more than I should have spent and I'm embarrassed to say

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?

quilting (love the BSR electronic eye gadget), home deco, misc. projects

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?

About once a month. She is very gently used.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?

I love this machine, I am a bit of a gadget freak and she has gadgets and features galore. I call her "Queen Bernina" since she has the crown jewels affixed to her front and of course, the heraldic theme to announce her presence whenever she is switched on.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?

I used to have a commercial embroidery machine which I sold when the business was a failure and we moved. The Queen fills the gap quite nicely for my current "whenever the whim strikes" one at a time embroidery projects. I also love the auto thread cutters and the BSR foot mentioned above.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?

I find the front load bobbin case a little fiddly, especially as the door is hard to open (I keep a little plastic stick on hand to hook into it) and when I have the Queen's sewing arm lowered to the sewing table height the bobbin case is sort of under the table and I have to extract and replace the bobbin case by feel mostly. I liked the drop-in bobbin on the last machine better.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!

no great stories yet

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?

The Queen is not cheap, oh no she isn't, so unless you have some serious cash on hand from say, selling a big commercial embroidery machine, I would recommend this only to the serious sewer. Also, she may not be the best machine for technophobes as she is fully computerized with a bazillion features. If you do invest in this royal machine, please do take full advantage of any classes that are offered to help you get to know her better.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?

1. experience (if new to sewing, start with a simpler machine, it may force you to learn to do a few things manually that you will then appreciate so much more when you can spring for an upgrade)


2. the store you intend to purchase from, I got mine at Meissners in Sacramento, even though it was a bit of a drive, the staff is very knowledgable and friendly, they offer free classes on most new machines, they have repair staff on hand and also a pretty good selection of used machines if you have champagne taste on a beer budget.


3. weight (if you intend to cart it around to classes, your friends house, etc), more metal in the body will probably last longer, but makes it quite heavy.


4. get one that does an automatic buttonhole if at all possible


5. your comfort level with computer systems, there are plenty of perfectly good machines that are not computerized (my last one was an entry level Elna and she was great).

Do you have a dream machine?

Yea and she lives in my sewing room :)

Goat Herder chores

hanging with Mary doing chores at Turkey Oak

bad goat! standing on the water dish

my favorite rooster, ole one-eyed Piorn

Backyard Bliss

Yah, the yard is "done", basically as done as it's gonna get for the time being. The weather has heated up to >95 everyday. Some of the plants we got from the local nursury have shriveled up and died, but all trees are are doing great. all the plants we got from High Country Gardens are thriving and have gotten about twice as big.

all the drip irrigation, dry stream bed and landscape gravel is in place.

Before:

After:

Minor Miracle

this morning I was quietly eating oatmeal and reading the paper when I caught sight of a little finch outside the window, as I glanced over I was startled to realize he was actually a zebra finch, the very same type as those in the aviary. My slowly awakening morning brain took a moment to make the connection and then I ran outside to see a big gaping hole in the aviary. Most of the birds were still inside, only 2 missing. As I was inspecting the hole, one of the little escapees was clearly very interested in getting back inside and kept flying around and peeping back and forth with his buddies.

I was torn between immediately fixing the hole to prevent more escapees or trying to net the fugitive. I opted to fix the hole and figured it was a lost cause to catch him. Somewhat dejected I went back inside to finish breakfast. As I was eating I once again noticed him really focused on getting back inside and he seemed especially interested in the little door I usually put the food bowl in. At that point I was feeling quite sorry for him and decided to risk propping the food door open to see if he would go back in. Well, no more that 60 seconds after I went back in the house he popped right back inside and started happily preening, inspecting his sleeping nest and peeping with relief to this buddies. I quickly closed the little door as my heart was just bursting with joyful feelings at this minor miracle, he's happy, his buddies are happy and I'm happy!!

Kazak Star Felting Complete

my first stranded color work and felting project is now complete! Below is the mess that resulted when I was trying to work with all 5 colors in the same row. I tried to do this with the Fair Isle method, but eventually realized that the Fair Isle technique of carrying all the colors along the entire row really only works well for 2 or maybe 3 colors, any more than that is just too much yarn to mess around with.
by the middle of the piece, I switched to using just the minimum colors needed to make the background pattern, finished the entire piece and then went back over it using the duplicate stitch method to fill in the additional colors (like the purple middle stitch and yellow outlines). Overall this worked much better.
After I got it all seamed together came the fun part of felting it. I simply put it into the washing machine hot water, put a towel in for additional agitation and balance and then let it go through the normal wash cycle. Next time I will probably put it into a mesh bag and stop it before it goes into the spin cycle, but on this go round it worked out just fine with my "let er rip" approach.

The bag came out feeling like it felted properly (no pun intended), but it was really "furry" and so I took a shaver and trimmed off the excess "fur".
this is just one side's worth of removed fur.

and Viola! the finished product, looks pretty damned good if I say so myself.

Memorial Day Weekend

The backyard landscaping is progressing at a pretty good pace in spite of our general laziness. We just cannot seem to get up and out early enough to beat the heat and then must wait until after 6pm for a tolerable temperature to work outside. We did get all the new plants in the ground. I was really worried about the 2 additional Desert Willow trees we planted. The first one that went is finally in full leaf and has some really lovely flowers, but when these new ones came out of the pot is was apparent that they didn't really put out any new roots and probably should have stayed in the pot for a bit longer. We got them into the ground and every single leaf immediately wilted and eventually fell off, in fact they got really crispy and then fell off : ( So, being a novice landscaper, I have been obsessively worried about them and checked every single day to see if there were any new signs of life. Lo and behold, the trees have risen from death's doorstep! They still look like crap, but I think they really do deserve the name of Desert Willow and will be OK.

On the other hand the first one we planted is doing splendidly, and has bloomed with these lovely pinkish purple trumpet shaped flowers. They don't seem to have any particular scent, but they look great.

The whole yard is really coming together and we are both very, very pleased. We are now looking at backyard furniture and planning for a BBQ in June or July which will be a good motivator for us to finish up the details. I think we will not be planting anything else until late fall/early winter as it's just too hot now for a tender young plant to get started.
The pergola is done and we spent a little time this weekend stringing some lights for ambiance.

Blockhead

I spent a pleasant afternoon putting the final touches on the 2 finished lace projects. Below is the swallowtail shawl before it is "blocked".
using the stainless steel welding rod for blocking wires, this is how it looks pinned out, this blocking step is necessary for getting the points to really show on the bottom edge of the shawl.

the whole thing pinned out on the guest bed, it was so hot today it only took about 15 minutes to dry.

finally, the finished shawl, lovely!because the shawl dried so fast, I also had a chance to block the Branching Out scarf. The shawl is made of wool so it was pretty stretchy and did get bigger after blocking, whereas the scarf is silk and didn't get much bigger pinned out, but it should lie flatter and show the pattern better now. Before, notice how it's kind of rumply.
now, pinned out the pattern is flat.

While I was in the house enjoying the new bedroom fan and AC, Craig and a contractor friend of ours was outside sweating over the new pergola.

getting everything nice and level, under strict supervision

about 75% done and looking good!