meet elna and her crib!

Yippee!!! It's my turn on Erin and Stacey's Meet my Machine blog hop!

As you can see from the name of my blog, I sew with an Elna! Specifically, she's an Elna eXplore 340 and I love her more than my luggage (Steel Magnolias quote, yo!).



I bought her just before Christmas in 2011 at Luke's in Blue Ash, Ohio (just outside of Cincinnati). The machine I had before that was a Singer Inspiration and gave me so many fits... oy, can't even tell you. I took it into Luke's to get it serviced and ended up walking out with Elna! That Nadine is a great sales person. :) I played on just about every machine they had at the store but really fell in love with the Elna eXplore 340 for my sewing needs at the time- home sewing and quilting but only of the smallish variety (Jill quilts all of my big guys- she's amazing!). Also, it didn't hurt one bit that if you bring a machine into Luke's- no matter if it works or not- you get 50% off the machine of your choice. SOLD! :)

Some of my favorite features that dear Elna has are her built-in needle threader (how did we live before these, I ask you?), drop in bobbin (the front loading ones make me say curse words), 24 different stitches to choose from (they're all so pretty! but I am partial to the triple stitch) and, quite honestly, just the quality that it was made with.

On average, I probably sew 4 days out of every 7 and I have not had a SINGLE issue with Elna in the 16 months that she's been mine. I've sewn everything from voile to canvas, one layer to several- including a couple layers of jean material at the same time- and I have never broken a needle, my bobbin has never made me lose my faith in humanity and the stitch results are all super consistent. What can I say, Elna's a great broad. :)

I seriously couldn't be happier with Elna! The only downside is that there's not a lot of room to turn fabric around when quilting, but I knew that when I bought it. Next time I buy a machine, I'll probably seriously consider the Elna eXcellence 740 because 1) it's an Elna (read: consistent quality) 2) the features look AMAZING 3) there are 11 glorious inches to move your fabric around for sewing. How can you not fall in love with all of that greatness, I ask you?

How could I properly share my love for Elna without showing you her home, right? Our sewing room started as a guest room when we bought our condo five years ago. Here's how it looked back then-

I can't even bring myself to make that picture bigger. No one needs to see that.

It was a guest room with a bed for a good two-three years until we decided to spruce it up and decorate it to look like us and not like a baby blue afghan threw up on the walls. Here's the room today!

You can see in the picture above where the closet used to be- I think the new little nook adds a lot of character to the room. We got a lot more use out of that space now, which is great! The large cube-y shelf and desk are from IKEA and while the shelf is great for storage in general, it's not my favorite for fabric storage as the shelves are pretty deep and it's a little hard to reach in the way back of one of the tall shelves, even if you're 5'9" like me. I really like to keep my fabric in a little wooden shelf that I got from Target a while back. It sits right behind where I sit and it's also a good judge of how much fabric I have. If I have more than will fit on that shelf, it's time to STOP BUYING FABRIC! ;) I toss all of my scraps into a big basket I got from Marshall's once which works out pretty nicely.

For me, organization is key for productivity. When I have time to be crafty, I want to sit down and get to it! I don't want to have to root around for what I need. Here's the view from where I sit at Elna-

Don't you love that micro mini quilt with the beautiful embroidery?! Kimbo made it for me for my birthday, along with Elna's cover. :)

I like to keep all of my notions within reach of my sewing machine so when I need something, I don't have to get up and can use my time better. In the white box I've labeled notions above are zippers, buttons, velcor- you know, just your typical notions. To the left of it though (in the super cute fabric box that Brooke made for me!) are the little things that I use all the time when sewing- bobbins, snippers, seam ripper and water soluble pen.

Almost all of my bobbins are empty- gotta fix that!

I have a couple places where I keep sewing WIPs- you can see one in the picture above. The other place is in a cube right above the micro mini quilt that Kim gave me-

To the right of it I have three designated orange boxes- one for crafty magazines, one for online tutorials that I've printed and the other for bought patterns and their pieces. There's also a cube just for sewing books.

I like to keep all of my cross stitch and embroidery organized, so this little cube is dedicated just to that!

The canister once held a candle but I've since washed it out (after we burned the candle!) and it holds thimbles, needles, etc. This cube may be my favorite spot in the room! :)

I also have an old enamel shelf that has been in our family way longer than I have- it's now an ironing and cutting station with room for storage underneath!

And, what would a sewing room be without a little place to put up your feet, right? :)

Truth be told, the other chair in the room almost ALWAYS has a project waiting to be finished on it; today is no exception. :)

And finally, there's a little shelf to the right of the white enamel shelf with a framed picture holding quite possibly my most favorite quote of all time. It's from Mother Teresa.

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."

Well, there you go folks- Elna and her room! But what's a blog hop without a give away, right? :) On Monday, March 25th, I'll randomly choose one lucky person to win...

There are three ways to enter!

1. Leave a comment on this post! Whatever your heart desires. :)
2. Like {me and elna} on Facebook and come back here and tell me you did.
3. Visit one of the other peeps in the Meet my Machine blog hop and comment on this post, telling me whose post you visited.

So, you can leave up to three comments! But remember, leave three separate comments- that way you have three ways to win. If you just leave one comment, you're missing out! ;) Also, make sure to leave your email address in the comment section so I can contact you if you when to get your mailing address to send your goodies to. Note that all comments close at 8:00am EST on Monday, March 25. I'll choose one lucky winner that afternoon and post his/her name here!

Thanks for stopping by, friends; have a great rest of your week! :)