MaggieLou

I attended an Anita Goodesign Embroidery Party this past Friday and Saturday. It was loads of fun and I'm getting a new Brother/Innovis NQ1400 emb machine. It came with lots of freebies including a free rolling case. I also won a really neat pair of curved emb scissors. The tips come down to a very fine small point. It's hard to explain but I had never seen any made quite this way. Other things I got were two free mini collections. One for buying a machine and another because one of the ladies in my group also bought one. We were grouped three people to a machine and took turns using the machine. The last drawing I won an Embroidery Party CD that sells for $560. We learned a lot of new techniques and the other two ladies at my machine were really great and we had a lot of fun. I also bought an "Art of Digitizing" CD for $99 that normally sells for $499. There were lots of giveaways and some really good prices on some things. Everything was furnished including pastries for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Snacks and drinks were also included. I think it was well worth the money I paid for the workshop. This workshop was put on by Brother and hosted by Triad Sew & Vac in Winston-Salem, NC. Triad did a great job of hosting and their staff was super. They were always ready to help or answer questions. I think other machine manufacturers also sponsor these workshops.

ManiacQuilter2

It is good to have the support of a dealership when buying a new machine for classes and technical maintenance support. I never win anything but my friend won tickets to the PBS Antique Roadshow so I am finally getting to go!

MaggieLou

I usually never win anything either. Lucky you getting to go to Antique Roadshow. I would love to go. I have a couple of items I would like to know the worth.

lynnie

sounds like you had a blast. a real grown up party, and you went home with a new machine. good luck and have fun. Now that you have that machine, look out, you'll be embroidering everything in site.

NJ Quilter

Sounds like you hit the motherlode! Enjoy.

Mariposa

Sounds like you had a grand time!

DOTTYMO

Sounds as if the whole event was a winner from start to finish.

MaggieLou

I had never used any Anita Goodesign designs and was familiar with them by name only. But if you've never used them give them a try. Their directions for their projects are some of the best I've seen. I was really impressed by how easy the directions were to follow. They show each step and tell you what to do and when. One thing I really liked was they stitch an outline on the stabilizer of where the design will go. It makes it easy to see if you need to change something. I really like the way they did their projects. We did a zipper pouch, a printed fabric block, trapunto block, towel end, folded fabric block, embroidered paper card and confetti block in the workshop.

Wanabee Quiltin

Congrats on your new machine, I bet you are going to have a fantastic time sewing on it.

MaggieLou

I don't have the machine yet. Thankfully, I still have my PE770 I can use until I get the new one. Lots of new techniques to try.