By Amanda Whitlatch, Educator for BERNINA of America, Inc.

This week I needed a quick bridal shower gift. After researching the traditions of the bridal handkerchief I fired up my BERNINA Embroidery Software 6 and got to work. The OESD Platinum Design Collection #61001, Love and Lace, was perfect! I brought in multiple designs from the collection and combined them with lettering from the software to create a one-of-a-kind heirloom keepsake.

The scallop border was created using Pattern Run for a perfect finish. Then I stitched out the handkerchief in the Jumbo Hoop on the BERNINA 830.

I printed the History of Bridal Handkerchiefs, adding embroidered embellishment to my document -- all in v6 Art Canvas -- to complete the gift.

A note from Kathy Delaney, BERNINA National Artisan, author, designer, teacher, lecturer, judge, and quilter:

I've been having the most fun making an outfit for myself to wear to our younger son's wedding next month. I'm making a simple kimono style jacket out of a hand-painted china silk that has been sewn in tiny pleats. The added texture is really adding a nice touch but is a bear to work with when pressing!

I'm making a dupioni silk shirt and I'm doing the whole thing with silk thread on my BERNINA 830! My machine has just been humming along as I work on this outfit. Believe me, this hasn't been all that easy. I haven't been making clothes but have been making quilts for lots of years so I'm a bit out of practice!

The emsemble includes a kimono-style jacket, camisole, ankle-length skirt, and bag. The bag especially turned out well! All accomplished on my BERNINA 830 with Dual Feed! The jacket pattern is "Keshy Jacket" from Wildly Wonderful Wearables. The purse pattern is the "Silver Frame Purse" from Quilt Plus. The skirt is "Relax a Little" from Cutting Line Designs.

Earlier this year I completed a jacket for Linda Lee's Project Sewing Workshop (the Liberty Shirt). The jacket will travel for a year and then I'll get it back and finally be able to wear it. It has appliqued yellow roses on the front that I designed and then hand-stitched before constructing the jacket.

I'd better get back to sewing!

A note from Elaine Cibelli, BERNINA of America Trade Show Team:

What do you find most difficult about embroidering on a garment? Is it placement? How to multi-hoop? Choice of thread colors? Well, for me, it is deciding on a design. Where do I begin to look? The great selection of designs in the "Best of Fashion" Design Collection makes the decision easier. The best of the best - all in one place!

The collar and cuffs of the Ikina Jacket and caribbean blue linen from Project Sewing Workshop are the ideal canvas for embroidery.

The embroidery design (originally in a collection called "Quirky Swirls") was combined in BERNINA Embroidery Software 6, arranged to be multi-hooped, and stitched using the Endless Embroidery feature of the BERNINA 830. Endless Embroidery can line up embroidery motifs, and the BERNINA 830 indicates placement for re-hooping. Absolute Check makes multi-hooping so easy, the results are perfection. To use Absolute Check simply touch any point on the embroidery design on the BERNINA 830 screen and the needle will be positioned over that location in the hoop.

The Magna-Quilts & Borders Hoop helps to further simplify the process of multiple hoopings. Fabric can be stitched and then easily repositioned without removing the hoop from the machine.

With the "Best of Fashion" Design Collection, my biggest embroidery problem is solved. Now I need to get sewing on other items for my summer wardrobe. The winter snows have melted but the winter pounds have not!

Here's a note from Jan Koehn, manager of The Quilters Ranch in Tempe, AZ, and features the OESD Premier Collection, "Zenspirations."

The IMAGINE in the center panel was hooped in the Jumbo Hoop, and the side panels were done in the Large Oval Hoop. All three were embroidered on the BERNINA 830. All of the designs were reduced in size to fit, and the density was reduced by about 20% as well. You've gotta love the on-screen editing capabilities of the BERNINA 830!

The freeform fiber was a soft variegated yarn, couched using Open Embroidery Foot #20, a zigzag stitch, and variegated King Tut cotton thread.

I'm really new to embroidery and am still feeling my way through the woods since "adopting" my BERNINA 830 in January, but I've become a jean jacket junkie! Here's another Jumbo Hooped design - this one from Urban Threads - that was my first attempt at embroidery on denim. The thrift stores have to watch out for me now - I love the idea of upcycling!

Sewing machines are a bit like cars - not only are they both useful machines, but they're both constantly being updated with new features. Think about cars from the 1950s - automatic transmission had just been introduced, and air-conditioning was available only in a few models. 60 years later we have airbags, keyless entry, hybrid engines, even GPS systems that talk! The history of sewing machines runs a similar course. In the 1950s zigzag stitches, automatic buttonholes, and a free arm were relatively new features. All of these were part of the BERNINA 530 model shown here. Nearly 60 years later, sewing machines like the BERNINA artistas have touch screens, built in consultants and tutorials, more stitches than anyone in 1954 could imagine, controls for manipulating those stitches, and even a device that reads the movement of the fabric to improve your freemotion stitching! 

If you've taken a peek at the BERNINA 8 Series machines - the 820 and 830 - you know that the designers and engineers included every feature a seamster could dream of having. BERNINA collected feature requests for years and years, then incorporated all that information in the design of the 8 Series machines. Okay, they didn't include the espresso machine I asked for, but other than that I can't think of anything they missed. There's even an alarm clock to remind me when it's time to feed my dog! If you haven't seen the 8 Series machines, you can take one for a virtual tour by downloading the BERNINA 820 and 830 Simulators from the 8 Series website. Just look at all those buttons! One for securing seams, one for presser foot pressure, one that remembers all the stitches you've been using, one for stitching in 16 directions 720 directions in half degree increments (what was I thinking!), one for adjusting tension,... there's even one for setting up your screen exactly the way you want it!

But the contest isn't about the old 530 or the new 8 Series machines - it's about sewing machine features. Which feature on your sewing machine do you absolutely love? If you could design your own machine, what feature would you be sure to include? I learned to sew on a straight stitch machine, and later sewed on a machine that had a extra stitches for techniques like blindhemming and overcasting, but no decorative stitches. So when I bought my first machine, one of the features I really wanted was a feather stitch. That was a long time ago - before I knew about BERNINA's Free Hand System. Now I can't live without having that FHS lever for raising and lowering the presser foot without using my hands!

So tell us what your favorite sewing machine feature is, or think of something new and exciting that you'd like to have on your machine. To enter the contest, just leave a comment to this blog posting before midnight EST, April 11, 2010. The winner gets a box of fun stuff from BERNINA, OESD, Benartex, and Brewer!