A note from Sylvain Bergeron, BERNINA of America Webmaster by day, quilter by night:

The journey of a simple idea... I had an idea 3 years ago, after creating a couple of quilts with all-over embroidery. My design niche being "embroidery is the quilt," I had been composing abstract designs out of basic geometric blocks. The next logical step was "what if the whole quilt is one big embroidery mofit?" Since my design philosophy is usually to jump in the deep end (without first looking whether the pool is filled;) I started out digitizing... The basic elements would be concentric circles in multiple sets and colors that would overlap, with one set emanating from the center of the piece. I was looking at a 5 x 5 block span, each 4 x 4 inches. I created a lattice for the block layout and started digitizing circles... lots of circles... I would have to cut and strip away strips between the blocks to create gaps between the blocks (which would be replaced by sashing) so the final design would actually be based on the original placement of stitch lines. By cutting into the original file, I would end up with a ton (and I do mean the 3 zeros ;) of segments... aka tie-ins and tie-offs in my embroidery... with a matching number of manual clippings.

On filling the pool... Well, I have to say that in this case I ended up watching the pool fill up :) Life happened... parenthood, other quilt ideas (one of which took me to Tokyo for the 9th Quilt Nihon Exhibition), etc. So my Slow Cooker Creative Method (TM) kicked in and the idea simmered on-and-off. I went through 3 design stages, none of which lit the proverbial light bulb. Then I got my 830 and the light bulb did go on... halogen style! With an automatic thread trimmer I no longer had to fear all that thread trimming. And the pool being filled, I did indulge my propensity to the deep end... I determined that a 25 x 25 inch square piece just couldn't render the image I had in my head... of color waves washing over each other from opposing corners, with a center dot (the focal point) creating an all-over ripple-in-the-pond effect. So why not 11 x 11 blocks? each one 5 x 5 inches ;-)

Did you know that a laptop can serve as a waffle iron? When you're churning up 12 million stitches in one embroidery file it can! I had mine running pretty hot for a couple of weekends in the final stage (stage 4) of the design work (btw, I have since acquired a workstation with a 24 inch monitor - more on the monitor later - for my design work... My laptop likes me again ;) I may be a slow cookder creatively by when the idea reaches maturity, I get a creative fever and things start happening fast. Luckily for me, my BERNINA 830 could keep up with my pace. So after a couple of busy weeks in the quilting studio (the master bedroom of my house btw), "Focal Point: A Geometric Stained Glass Window" was well on its way.

Be a good son... call your mother :) I have a little tradition in the making... when the blocks are all embroidered and trimmed to size, I lay them out on my living room floor, climp on the couch and take a picture. That is what I call the proofing stage. As a joke, I call my mother (who has been an inspiration in how to stick with a project to see it through) to let her know that my next piece passed the test. She always asks how many hours have gone in so far... at over 200 hours, it's a good thing that the concept panned out... we have a good laugh.

The best part is... I am very grateful for the scknowledgement this piece just received in the Fall IQF in Houston. While as a quilt artist it's good to get feedback from my peers, the positive encouragement received helps give momentum to my next project. And while "my thing" in quilting (aka "Embroidery IS the Quilt") can be considered a niche, shows like IQF help give exposure to my work. One of my goals is to show how the digital embroidery technology can be used as a design tool. The precision it affords in thread placement on fabric lets me create images in thread that just couldn't be realized with hand-guided free-motion stitching (there is not enough caffeine in the world to make that possible :) My other goal is to get the image out of my head and onto fabric... so I can make room for the next idea. So far, for every quilt I make I get 2 or 3 new ideas... so the more I make, the more I fall behind... As the saying goes ... I can't die - I have too many projects :)

Back to that monitor: If you design large pieces (and especially for large hoops), I highly recommend that you invest in a large monitor that can pivot. I now have a 24 inch monitor, which allows me to work at actual size (ratio 1:1) for my large oval hoop when the monitor is in the regular landscape mode. When I rotate it to portrait (vertical) mode, I can fit my jumbo hoop stitching field at actual size also... so I can preview my work "as is" with less zooming in and out. Since the design phase is where I enjoy the creative fever the most... the monitor has been one of my best investments so far.

What's next? I'm currently working on a wall hanging for a charity fund raiser... then I embark on a project of particular significance for me personally. A photo quilt, life sized, of my best friend whom I lost to breast cancer 9 years ago. It will be done in time for the 10th anniversary of her passing in 2010. I look forward to every moment spent making this next piece.

I just returned from the 35th International Quilt Festival held in Houston. It is an annual show and filled with beautiful quilts, wearables and lots of shopping. In our BERNINA booth we had 830s set up classroom style and a 45 minute tote-bag project you could make using the 830. It was a full house except for the early slots Sunday morning - however, any empty seat was often filled with folks standing by.

I was able to present or help in these sessions and enjoyed watching new sewers and people who had never before sewn or embroidered complete their tote-bag. We customized the 830 screen with a wallpaper of their choice from the many to select from, set the needle minder for the needle installed in the machine (so we wouldn't forget), and started creating our embroidery in the Jumbo Hoop! We took 2 designs from Diane Gaudynski's embroidery folder of feathered quilting designs and created our design and embroidered. Then, with the touch of one button, we went to the sewing screen and created a stitch combination using Drag & Drop and Connecting Stitches and sewed that under our embroidery. The final step was to use the BERNINA Dual Feed to sew up our bag.

Everyone had a new tote they could fill up with their shopping treasures from Houston.

Hello from Rosemont, Illinois, from the International Quilt Festival. The Bernina booth is busy in Chicago with the debut of the Bernina 820!Customers are signing up for the Create with Eight hands-on class with the Bernina 830. Everyone is thrilled with the features of both machines -- the space under the bed of the machine, the speed, the size of the jumbo bobbin, the centrally-located touch screen, the total customization possible, the dual feed system, the threading system, and the automatic needle threader. There's so much to love!

What a great time we had at the International Spring Quilt Festival! Of course the Bernina booth was hopping with excitement! We had "Get to Know" Sit & Sew sessions on the 830, also known as having a Date with 8! Of course the 8 Series is a perfect "10" in my book! Our friends experienced some of the awesome features on the 830 during their time in the class. And they even had the opportunity to see the 820, the 830's sister! One of our students said that she really didn't want to like the new machines because then she would want one. Guess what? She fell in love anyway and decided to go for it all - her new 830 is on order!

If you really want to have your creative juices recharged, just stop by a Bernina booth at one of your area Quilt Shows and be inspired! We love seeing our BFF's - and that stands for BERNINA FANS FOREVER!!

Greetings from the Bernina VIP event in Chicago, Illinois. Over one hundred excited Bernina customers attended the event and experienced embroidery first-hand on the Bernina embroidery machines. They attended Preview Night at the International Quilt Festival at Rosemont and had the wonderful opportunity to see the BERNINA 820 debut at the show and the opportunity to sew and embroider on the big sister, the BERNINA 830.