I'm so excited.

Look at what UPS dropped off for me yesterday:

IT'S MY NEW SEWING MACHINE!  It's the Brother XR-7700.  I've had a little envelope in my sock drawer for about a year now where I've been squirreling away money for a sewing machine.  I wanted a Bernina or a Pfaff, but at the rate I was going it was going to take about a million (or at least 5) years to have enough for one. My mother-in-law sent me a link to this machine on the Costco website and I got it the next day. 

I don't anticipate it lasting me the rest of my life, but for $150, I don't mind.  And now I have a decent machine to work with while I start saving again for my dream machine. 

All weekend I was obsessively watching the tracking website, refreshing every hour or so.  Whenever it was scanned somewhere new I would announce it to my husband, who thought I was being silly but was still happy for me. 

So, here's the biggest reason I was so excited:

This is the machine I was using.  It's my mom's backup one.  Very sturdy (it's old and all the parts are metal), but also very basic.  And very finicky.  The tension has been crazy since I got it, as has the stitch length.  Lately the bobbin has been tangling and stalling the machine almost every time I start sewing.  Needless to say, I haven't been sewing much lately.  I did these and this at my mom's house, on her lovely Bernina. 

So here's my new little beauty:

I finally got to try it out last night and so far it's been awesome.  It came with 10 feet, including a free motion foot and a walking foot!!  I can do my own quilting now!! 

There are also 70 stitch options, which is fun.  I'm mostly excited by all the feet, though.  I've never used a buttonhole foot and now I just want to make things with rows and rows of buttons on them. 

I can't wait to sew knit things, either.  Doing that was almost always a disaster with my old machine.  But now... The possibilities are endless. I'm going to make leggings!  And refashion shirts! 

I've been cutting stuff out all weekend to sew, and I think I'm in for some more of that today.  In fact, I think I'll get to that right now.