Bliss
 

Anyone out ther with an APQS Millinium or Freedom? I am thinking about getting Bliss on my Freedom that I bought new in November 2011. Wondering what the thoughts are from those of you who had an APQS without Bliss, and then if you added Bliss, can you really tell the difference wieth it? I do quilting for customers and I do both Edge to Edge and Custom. I seem to struggle with getting my swirls smooth if the design is a smaller more desnse design. I do ok if I am working on a larger design. What are your thoughts? Would it be worth the $1000 to add it to my Freedom or not? I don't want to spend the money on it if I won't be able to tell any difference. I was hoping there would be an APS Road Show soon in my area but I don't see one scheduled. I guess I just have to be patient and wait for the MN Quilt Show in June to try a machine with Bliss to see if I can tell any difference in the movement. I suppose it would be wise for me to take a small dense panto along so I can actually try it. I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on Bliss. Thanks.

What isbliss

Bliss is their name for the ball bearings that reduce friction on the horizontal rails of the frame's carriage. (I hope I explained it right!)

I just tried out lots of apqs models yesterday, at their road show in Des Moines, including a Lucey without bliss and everything else with bliss. If I buy one, I will definitely get Bliss. It moved much easier and felt more smooth, less like I was pushing or shoving the machine.

I didn't try small dense quilting on the Lucey without Bliss. On the machines with Bliss, I could control them with my fingertips, but not the machine without Bliss.

Thanks for the reply Christine. I have pretty much decided that I want to get Bliss--now it's just to save the money. I already started saving and then, wouldn't you know--my daughter at college at Colorado had car problems--so there my money went! UGH. Oh well. I do quilting for customers, so am going to try hard to put some away each month and my goal it so be able to order Bliss sometime this summer. I love my AQPS Freedom but I think I will like it even more if it glides smoother and with less effort. I also work full time out of the home so when I have a day off, I often stand at the machine many hours at a time quilting. Hopefully you'll be able to get a machine soon and see how wonderful the APQS machines are.