Have you ever been so excited for months about an event you were going to attend? Excited and a bit freaked out?
Well this week was it for me. Excited and a bit freaked out described it perfectly. Earlier in the fall BERNINA invited their Ambassadors to attend a Reunion: a time of sharing, opportunities for learning and connecting. Wednesday evening each of the 25 in attendance spent 2 – 3 minutes telling a little bit about who we are and what we do. I ended up toward the end of the group experiencing this deep sense of awe and gratitude as quilter after quilter introduced themselves among the group were quilters, fashion sewers and dedicated sewing/crafting bloggers. My quilting world came to life in front of my eyes. As I shared I know my voice was a mixture of nerves and excitement. How often in life does a quilter get to thank many of the quilters who have influenced and trail blazed? This moment for me was priceless.
Thursday started with a presentation from Ricky Tims that gave me some things to think about, had us all laughing and brought us to tears. The good kind of tears, tears of joy and tears relief and tears of thankfulness. You know the most important thing a teacher ever leaves us with is, “you can do this!” And Ricky left me with exactly that. Over the course of the two days we worked on the 580, 780, 820/830 with the Quilt Motion Software. Different feet were presented with each machine. This quilter was quite thrilled this kind of learning is right up my tree. I’m not full on techie but I do love learning the what and why of the machines and how quilters can use them. I was really looking forward to the tech talk and got pulled out of class for head shots and interview.
In the sessions on the 580 & 780 we made projects (what better way to learn how to use a machine and the accessories). As much as I was dreading the makeup, photo shoot and interview it turned out rather painless. The makeup artist (whose name I can’t remember) Sylvan (the interviewer) and the photographer really made me (each of us I presume) feel very comfortable with the process. Cara who works in Marketing and reviewed all of the stills, came over to the Creative Center after all the head shots were done. I gave her my peeper keeper and brought home the pillow.
Though I didn’t get to stay for the whole tech talk I did learn a couple of very important things: 1) canned air is not good for the machines and 2) cleaning and oiling the machine on a regular basis keeps them from trips to the spa!
All in all this was a good 2 1/2 days. I’m looking forward to next years Reunion.
Happy Quilting!
Teri
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