My new-to-me embroidery machine!!

I shouldn't do some things. Things like window shopping, going to the dog shelter to just "look", going to the fabric store to "kill time", and looking at Craigslist just to "see what they have".... I have ended up with deals I couldn't pass up, one or three dogs, a crap TON of fabric I never intended to purchase, and a brand spakin' new (to me) kick ass embroidery machine! Okay, it's kick-a'ness is yet to be determined but it certainly has the potential!! I just need to find the time to figure it all out! 

I got a hell of a deal. I had to do some MAJOR negotiating and mayhaps shed a few tears to convince my husband of how great of a deal this was and how this little investment would pay off great dividends. It will, it will!! Part of the "deal" I made was that I would finally let go of (i.e. sell) the bins and bins and bins of clothing that I have stored out in the garage in sizes I have not seen in um.. years. I blame him though- I've been kicking out children like it's my job and well, I didn't get myself pregnant. I fully plan on getting down to the size of the clothing in there and yes I could still wear most of it if I did, but it will take time. Corey said that if and when I do, I can get new clothes. I am typing this up here so that it is written and he can not deny having said it. I only type the truth! :) My goal is to get through the clothes sometime in the Fall, when it isn't 110 degrees. For real today it was 111, and this was our 52nd day over 100 this summer. Awesome. Or not. When I get to them though, there's several hundreds of dollars to be made! Seriously. I have over 120 skirts alone!

On to my new machine! I need to name her. I am open to suggestion. 

I got a Singer Quantim XL-6000

The sweet lady I got it from gave me a ton of extras. I got one roll of stabilizer, a whole RACK of high quality thread, an older laptop (that was used mostly for the embroidery CD's and downloaded designs), and several CD of embroidery designs. I will probably end up selling most of the CD's though since they aren't things I would use (and will help me pay it off!...oh wait, who am I kidding. I could use that money to get new designs!).

Her first car ride with me.

Her new home. She fits in well. 

 You can see the thread and laptop there (you can also see how I hung my iron and ironing board with the wall hooks I got 2 for $1!).

Ohh la! la!

I love all of the yummy colors!! 

My first attempt at embroidering a name!

 

Success!

A few things I've done so far! Baby steps. Right now I'm just doing names and I've only used the fonts that come on the machine. I don't know how to get fonts and designs from the computer to the machine yet!