and it has served me well. My Singer sewing machine. I bought it at Sears in Rhode Island in my first and only semester of Apparel Design. It has sewn circle skirts, finished costumes for a production of the musical "Oklahoma!" , upholstered my mom's lawn furniture, made pajama pants for my son which are now ridiculously too small, and was the way I first started making images again after my son was born. When he was a year old and started day care, I finally got out that free-motion embroidery foot and figured out what it could do. It has forgiven me for not oiling it enough, sewing difficult materials and hiding it away for far too long sometimes. And now it will enjoy a bit of a vocational change.

Again, because of my Minnesota State Arts grant, I was recently able to purchase a new Bernina 215 machine. No fancy bells and whistles, and still a manual buttonholer, but it is a machine that will be strictly for fabric. It is pretty, quiet and computerized. My old singer, well, it is going to be for sewing everything else. Leaves and twigs? Let's see what it looks like. All those empty paper flour and sugar bags and butter wrappers I've been hoarding...what would free motion embroidery do on those? Paper and fabric together? I'm curious. I can't wait to experiment without the fear of trashing my only machine! And I know I will always be able to find some little old man that has a talent for small machines and the ability to restore an old workhorse when it wears out. .