Popular Pineapple and New Embroidery Machine

It seems this year is the year for pineapples. I've seen them in all the craft  and home decor stores. They are a symbol of southern hospitality, which is where  I'm headed in a couple of years. For some reason, I'm liking anything to do with pineapples. I've ordered fabric, created a wall hanging, and customized an embroidery design on pineapple fabric.

Recently I upgraded my embroidery machine to a powerhouse of a machine. This is the first test project I made to begin teaching myself how the machine works. It sure has a bit of a learning curve, but I'm up to the task. The machine didn't come with an accessory bag and being the organizational, neat freak I am, I had to make one for those extra parts and pieces I'll be working with.
First is the fabric, and of course, when I found this pineapple print in Micheal's, I just had to have it. I coordinated it with a tie-dye green fabric for the lining. 

I ironed the two pieces and cut some fusible fleece to sandwich in the middle.

I next cut two lengths of fabric in order to create two bags and serged around the edge of each. 

 Folded each, just to gauge the size. 

Next is the embroidery. I chose these colors and placed a piece of fusible stabilizer on the back of where I would embroider the design.  

So here goes. The machine is now embroidering the first test of what it can do. I emailed a friend who bought the same machine and told her I was so scared of how unbelievably fast it was stitching. Oh boy, this is a great thing. It's going to take me many subsequent projects to get used the quickness of this machine. And, "Oh!", it is so much quieter than my previous machine.  

After the embroidery was finished, I proceeded to sew in the zipper and sew the sides.

This bag is so easy, once you have the zipper in, just sew up the sides. Then create a box bottom to give the bag some dimension to hold its contents.

Turn it right-side out and, voila. a cute little storage bag that can be adapted to almost anything.

Lessons learned: 

1. Don't be afraid to just dive into learning something new. Your brain will be energized and thank you for the opportunity. 

2. Mistakes are the path to learning. Choose a project where mistakes won't matter. Let yourself experience the failures and subsequent learning of your craft. 

3. I wish I stayed with the magenta color for the complete emblem on this project. I have learned to look closer at color combinations when embroidering future projects. 

My next project?  A quilt that needs to be finished and then a pineapple fabric cover for the extreme machine.