Onebyone

A sewing friend bought a Bernina 820 and she regrets it. She has to take it in a lot to get a tiny bit of thread from the bobbin area that cannot be reached. She overheard the dealer say she loved the 820 for the profit she made removing thread from it.

kellen46

I had a Bernina 440. I liked it pretty well and it was great for piecing. I wanted to upgrade to the 580 for the newer features. I got talked into an 830 and I hated it....picky, pricey, and uber sensitive to any stray threads. (you don't ever want to experience the gears of death, trust me on this.) I decided it was over engineered to the point of uselessness. The dealer was hours away over the mountains. I decided to go with the only local dealer, Viking & Babylock. I bought a Viking Ruby which I think on the same level as the 580 and I like it ok, the free motion is not as easy as I would like and yes it is a bit thread picky. I sold my 830 on Ebay and took quite a bath financially but I did manage to make enough to pay for the Ruby. I see the Ebay market it sort of inundated with the upscale 830 so I don't think I am the only disillusioned one. I have a great Brother Inovise 1000 that is used as much as the Ruby and does a great free-motion quilting on large quilts. It is not so much my backup as my co-machine. Between the two we get things done. I also have my old Bernina 830 Record which is in semi retirement but will be used from time to time. It is my true backup as I will never sell it. If I only have to have one machine that would be the one. Full disclosure I do have a Babylock serger and I like it very much I just don't do a lot of serger sewing.
I think now I am done with buying upscale machines. I will just stick with what I have and be happy. I found I need to reset some default settings on the Ruby to meet my needs at the start of the sewing day to make my session more successful but it has gotten to be my habit so it is not cumbersome.
One thing I would tell the makers of drop in bobbins.....There should be only ONE right way to replace the bobbin housing after a cleaning, not three or four almost but not quite right ways. Something you have to discover after reassembly and attempted stitching. It is so frustrating and usually takes me three or four attempts to get it minusculey just right. Just a thought for the manufacturers. I am not going to be any more trading up or down of machines, at least in the next decade or so.

IBQUILTIN

Viking Sapphire. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Love it

quiltnmore

I use the Speedy Baby II pattern with a 16 1/2" square center. This allows me to personalize it with an embroidery design and lettering.

I make wedding banner quilts, baby quilts, Army Chaplain theme, and recently for SJS patients. I love this 45" pattern.

tlpa

You can free motion quilt with this machine. I just bought one 2nd hand....haven't even used it much yet, just some straight stitching, but I did try fmq, and the stitches were nice. I'm on a learning curve with it because I used to have a Bernina.

Rennie

I started with a Janome 9000 (1995 - still have it, it runs great - was top of the line at the time)
Got a Babylock Ellageo in 2001 (top of line then - DH bought it as gift for bigger hoop embroidery)
Recently traded it in (didn't want to - LOVED that machine and it still ran great but used floppy disks for design transfers)
Traded it for a Babylock Esante. NOT TOP OF LINE because I told my dealer I did not want all the laser lights, etc. and did not want to rob my 401K just for a machine. I just wanted a great machine. So far I am very happy. I do have back up machines just because I could not part with my Janome 9000 and I had a Babylock Sofia for classes.

MarleneC

Viking Ruby
If there was a Babylock dealer here I would switch. The Ruby is reliable--just haven't found it to be that user friendly compared to the Designer 1. Changes were made with updates that changed how to get into free motion. It is very noisy during embroidery.
Doesn't seem picky about threads.
No repairs.
I have the Designer 1 to use for other functions.

madamekelly

Yes, I would rebuy the same machine. i have had it seven years, and so far no repair shop visits, no issue with whatever thread I buy, and I did keep my other Brother machine as a backup, but have never needed to get it back out. I bought a Brother Innovis 650Q quilting machine on clearance because it was the floor model. No regrets at all.

gcorn

I bought a Pfaff Creation 4.0 and I love it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. What I have liked is the classes offered by the dealer. She helped me learn the machine. The help she gave me made the price not so bad. I have only taken it in for cleaning twice since I bought it in 2012. I have had trouble with metalic thread, but I have slowed down the machine and can get them to work. This was my first machine and I was embroiding so much I bought a less expensive backup. So I could sew at the same time.

Onebyone

I stopped wanting a Pfaff when Nancy Z. wouldn't be their spokesperson for them after decades of promoting the Pfaff. She knew first hand how the quality was going downhill as she used the new models for her show. Maybe the quality has improved. The middle of the line BabyLock seems to be the favorite at the local dealer that sells all brands of sewing machines.