A Bernina Bond

Sew...
(haha...get it? "sew"(so)...sorry...that's my terrible sense of humor)
...last week I bought my own...very first....
sewing machine!

I've grown up sewing on a Bernina 801 Sport. My mother bought this machine new about 25 years ago and even though it's pretty basic it has been a fabulous machine.  I sewed Barbie Doll clothes on it starting out, pajama shorts, my first ever quilt, the last 5 quilts I've done, along with various crafting projects.  Bernina is a high quality brand, consequently they can be pricey but they don't loose their value (prime example, mother's machine: 25yrs old, basic machine, bought for around $700, can still fetch upwards of $300 on eBay).  Therefore, I am biased.

I was by a town that had a Bernina dealer last week and I couldn't resist taking the chance to stop in and see what was currently available. I knew I couldn't afford a new machine which can be in the thousand's, so I wanted to look at the used ones they had available.
They had 2 that caught my interest a

Bernina 1630

and a Bernina 1530

Both machines are from the mid-90's and have many more stitch functions than the Bernina 801 that I learned on.  The 1630 however has a wider foot bed that is useful for more embroidery type work.  Also a complaint by some quilters of the 1630 was that because the feed dogs
are further apart they don't always catch when you are sewing  1/4" quilting seams. I'm not really interested in the embroidery aspects and do more of the quilting so I focused more on the 1530.

Now I had not gone into the shop specifically looking to buy but was open to it if the opportunity arose...well it arose!  The 1530 had what I was looking for so I decided to go ahead and purchase it!  I'm pretty happy with it so far! I'm currently working on my first project on it: an emerald knit dress which will be blogged about in the future...  The Bernina machines sew so smooth and effortless, I am sewwww happy I took it home with me!