440QE Machine Cover progress

Slowly but surely, the cover for my Bernina 440QE is getting close to done. At the Bad Herrenalb retreat, I got the top assembled, sandwiched and stitched in the ditch.
A few days ago I machine-stippled the KO applique part.
Tonight I used my embroidery module on my 830 to embroider a stipple fill around the name Gertrude Alice. My top wasn't exactly square, so I went back and touched up a couple of places. Then I basted around the outside.
That means there are just 3 things left to do:

1. Add the ribbons (still on their way from stoffe.de)
2. Bind the edges
3. Tack back the geese so they will have a curved look. 
4. Ok, and add a label. I rarely remember the label is a step, too.

Getting excited!

Digitizing artwork with Bernina Designer Plus

Bernina Designer Plus V6 is the software I use to create my designs. It has a host of tools, and it's very powerful.
This weekend, I was able to confidently digitize a picture for the first time. Here's how you digitize:
Simple Digitizing with Bernina Designer Plus V6

1. Choose a piece of artwork that is fairly simple in terms of color and structure
2. Open the software and click on Art Canvas to show the artwork tools
3. Click on Load Picture
4. Choose your picture.
5. Click on the picture and zoom in 
6. Look at the details of the picture and clean up any large issues
7. Adjust the size if you need to
8. Go back to Embroidery Canvas
9. Click on Image Preparation
10. Use the Reduce colors tool to limit the number of colors in the picture
11. Click on Auto Digitizer
12. Click on the picture and select the digitizing options. Generally Auto Fill is best for the wide areas and Double Run is best for outline stitches. Click OK
13. The stitch generator will run for a short while, then you have your stitches.
14. The individual areas are selectable. To remove the stitches from an area, just click it and delete.
15. Done!

Original artwork

Loaded into Designer Plus

Closeup of the digitized stitches

Thanks, Castro, I love it!

Castro is the person who did the final testing on my new Bernina 830 machine. Everything seems to be working fine, so thanks go to Castro and the whole team for designing and building a great product!
I'm busy sewing and learning. Yesterday, my introduction to the machine at the dealer lasted 3 hours! But at the end, I knew all the sewing screens and was able to competently sew last night. OK, at least as competent as I normally sew.
I've also played with the V6 software, but don't really know anything about it yet.
First project is for DH, who has been *mostly* an angel throughout the buying process. I'll show you when it's done.
In the meantime, here are the first pictures of the unpacking...

Kept my game face on

Short version:

Awesome dealer! She has the heart of a teacher, and gave me my price with extras.
First, she went below internet price, even including training. Then Dear Hubby exercised his negotiating skills so I got the humongous Jumbo hoop at a heavy discount.
I kept my game face on, and left my purse in the car, and got everything I could reasonably hope for. Happy happy day.

The long version:

She was indeed ready to receive me and show me the machine. She recognized me from 5 months ago and still had my phone number. She let my inquiries drive the discussion, acknowledging that I had done my homework. Her passion is around satisfied customers.
She does not teach an introductory class, but rather does 2 sessions with each purchaser, one for basics and one for embroidery. She was straightforward about this instruction having a value, and that it is focused on the customer's wishes, not a training "package."
She is not very software competent in generic terms, but can digitize and manage her designs effectively. I figure I can handle the software myself.
She knew the internet prices and talked about the value of a good dealer. Her reputation is so good that the new European Bernina manager is coming to visit her this week, one of just a few stores in Germany he will visit.
I found that she has the heart of a teacher, calm confidence in her knowledge, and practical solutions to problems. She could talk intelligently about the most common user problems (threading and being in too much of a hurry).
When it came to price, she talked about the value of the training, the willingness to do the right thing, then brought her husband over to do the actual price calculation. I requested that the price include the training.
He hemmed and hawed (it was like a little play, our negotiation), brought up a price, she corrected him. In the meantime, my husband started asking about the Jumbo hoop and if it were useful. She mentioned it's invaluable.

Then they offered a price for the 830 with training that was 99 Euro less than the internet price. That knocked my socks off, but I kept my mouth shut. Then DH inquired if something could be done about Jumbo hoop price (300 Euro), and they took 100 off that.
After that, we did the small-talk dance that is part of the negotiation, talking about world economics. I suddenly recognized that I was being offered the machine I wanted from the dealer I want for the price I wanted, with training for free, AND with a Jumbo hoop for a 100 extra.

I took it. The machine will be ordered from Switzerland tomorrow and could arrive as soon as Friday. I am very, very happy.

Time to put on my game face

When you are a seller or a buyer, it pays to put on a "game face."

A game face is the behavior you exhibit to your negotiation partner, so she will see only what you want her to see. That gives you power in the negotiation, because the other party does not know how far you are willing to go, and they will be more likely to give in to what you want.
A colleague of mine at Philips became an expatriate, and took his family over to The Netherlands for a couple of years. They needed to buy a used car and went shopping.
As the salesman showed them a particular car, the man's wife turned to her husband and adamantly said, "I want this one."

Negotiation over. He paid sticker price, got no discount.

I need my game face tonight. After 6 months of analysis, I've decided to negotiate for a Bernina 830, which comes with a normally expensive, but in this case free software. Check out the machine here. Does everything but clean your toilets.

One of the dealers in my area has this special offer, and she is my first choice to buy from, because her shop is well set up, they have (apparently) a lot of knowledge about this model, and she's the closest.
But the chance that she will insist that I pay list (Eur 7999) is pretty high. Online retailers who have the special are offering it for Eur 7399. Eur 600 is a big difference.
That Eur 600 is why I'm putting on my game face. With that money I can buy a huge number of accessories, or as my husband put it, an iPad.
Dear Hubby went even further. If I skip the machine altogether, I can buy 8 iPads. One for Monday, one for Tuesday, and so on. Even one spare iPad. Dear Hubby is almost as crazy as I am. :)

My only problem is, I DON'T HAVE A GAME FACE FOR THIS NEGOTIATION!!! I'm so excited about the prospect of having this machine that I feel like I can just walk into the store, hand over my EC card, and say, "Quick quick! Give me the machine! I can't wait any longer!"

Just nine hours to get my game face together. This is looking bad.

Stitch Sampler - a long drink of water

I have been using a Bernina 440QE for several months now, and I LOVE it. It makes so many things easier than I ever imagined. For example, I just sewed a tabbed curtain for my dear daughter, and dear Hubby said I should sew buttonholes and buttons, rather than just sew both ends of the tabs to the curtain. I went into autoimmune mode, not able to imagine sewing 30 buttonholes on the 10 tabs.

When I got to the machine, and started thinking about it, though, it occurred to me that maybe the Bernina (her name is Gertrude Alice) could do buttonholes more easily than I was used to. So I took the time to learn how to do buttonholes with my nifty automatic buttonhole foot.

It was like magic! I measured the button, then sewed the first side of the buttonhole. Then I pressed the reverse button, and the machine stitched the rest of the buttonhole for me!

THEN I learned that I only needed to press the "Add to memory" button, and it would be ready to go at that exact size. Well that also worked perfectly, and my 20 (didn't need the last 10) buttonholes just flew onto the fabric. I was very impressed.

Anyway, that story has nothing to do with the picture. Early last spring, I decided to stitch out every one of the 181 stitches the QE440 has. I chose to do it on both black and white, and I chose to test out several different embroidery threads.

Daughter is holding the full thing, all 2 meters of it (she is over 175 cm herself), and here are some closeups as well. I've hung the finished piece up in my sewing room so I always have a reference to choose stitches.