I used to have canaries and whenever the machine 'sang' they competed with
it by singing as loudly as they could. If a little bird could shout, that was them! So I called my sewing machine 'Big Bird'.
I also think of myself and my machine as a team and sometimes when I'm setting up I say to ?him ?her, "Hi Team, how much do you think we can get done today? or some other such greeting (I hope this isn't a sign of some sort of mental imbalance!)