Friday, October 1, 2010

Bernina of Richmond -- Richmond VA


On Wednesday morning, it was just a short drive to the Bernina Sewing Centre of Richmond. I got there a little early so that I could take some pictures of the store before the "Trapunto by Machine" workshop.


This is a large store, so there was a lot to look at -- the Bernina demonstration area also has sewing machine furniture and accessories.


The fabrics and quilts are colorful and beckon you to look closer...











There were quite a few bolts on sale; when I first started quilting 20 years ago, $6 per yard was a lot -- now it's a bargain!



Like the Irvington store, there are many thread choices for embroidery, piecing and quilting.

The classroom walls are virtually covered with quilts. In the left photo below are two machine embroidered quilts -- the one on the right is "Beyond the Color Purple", a Jenny Haskins design that is taught here by Venitta McCall. Venitta is a university professor who has a larger-than-life personality combined with her deep knowledge of machine embroidery and awesome teaching ability.


It is my understanding that the upcoming series is the last time that Venitta will be teaching this quilt, so if you want to learn this and can fit it into your schedule, sign up now!









Here's a closeup from "Beyond the Color Purple"






Two more of the quilts displayed in the classroom; whenever I had a little bit of a break, I would wander over and look at the work more closely. This picture was taken before class started; -- 15 minutes later, there was fabric, thread, batting and papers strewn all over the tables!

A smaller machine embroidered piece and, below, a closeup of the embroidery in the border.















"Trapunto by Machine" was a particularly interesting class to teach here as most of the ladies in the class had not used their BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) foot very much, if at all. I spent some time explaining how the foot worked and how best to use it, so that by the end of the day, after a couple of hours spent stitching and familiarizing themselves with the foot, the free motion work felt more approachable to them.


As I was wandering around the shop, I noticed a very attractive display of Judaica art quilt patterns designed by Fay Nicoll of Sunshine Sewing Company. I'm always looking for new ideas in this direction; there are three Judaica quilt patterns in my Batts in the Attic line, designed by my very artistic friend, Paula Fleischer. I bought two of these patterns; one of them is the quilt hanging above.


Some bolts of Judaica themed fabrics at left and some of the patterns displayed below.















The Bernina Sewing Centre of Richmond is located at 7590 Broad Street in Richmond (ph: 804-755-4499); to go to the website, click here.

1 comment:

  1. While it is an attractive store you better hope you don't need any repair done to your Bernina machine. The management is extremely rude and unhelpful. I was charged and the machine sent home without being fixed and they were unwilling to help me further.

    ReplyDelete

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