Learning New Things

I love crocheting and knitting, but I am finding that too much of either of them at one time leaves my hands and wrists in pain.  I decided that since I have the time I should improve my sewing skills.  I can do most projects with a little patience, but I have been taught to do almost all of them by hand.  I have a very nice sewing machine with a ton of feet for various details.  Today I played around with the ruffle maker and with the embroidery foot.  (I've wanted to learn to machine applique for some time.)  

These were my first attempts at either and I'm pleased to say I think I caught on pretty quickly.

The ruffled edge on the pillow wasn't difficult once I got used to the speed I needed to work at.

The rectangle was my practice piece on the applique to learn how to pivot the corners.  It took a few, but I got it in the end.

Then the heart was my second applique project.  

It isn't perfect either, but I played (on one small section) with using the feeds versus not.

However, on it I was able to pivot in the points which is what I was testing.

My next adventures include learning to use the small rolled hem foot.

I tried and had no success, so it is off to YouTube to look for video guides.