Originally Posted by JENNR8R
I'm thinking about taking a four-day free-motion quilting class that would require an airplane to get to. I have zero experience in free-motion quilting. I don't think I want to ship my Bernina 1630 to the class for fear of something happening to it. It's too heavy to take on the airplane.
The class offers rental of Berninas that are not the same model as mine... specifically models 1230, 1130 and 1090.
Do you think that learning free-motion quilting on one of these machines would be worthwhile to me? I don't know if learning free-motion quilting has more to do with learning the muscle memory required to do it or learning how to use my specific machine to do it.
Which one of the rental machine models would you ask for?
Jenn,
I would NOT take my machine on a trip like that. It's too much bother! I would NOT hesitate to rent a machine, if they are not provided. It would be nice to get one that is the same brand, but even that is not critical. I doubt the machines that are available to rent are a very "high tech model". You just want to be able to turn it on and know how to drop the feed dogs, etc. I think the instructor would be able to help with this, if necessary (because it is not your machine).
The "trick" to free motion quilting on a domestic machine is to coordinate your hands and feet. (the movement of the fabric with your hands and the speed of your machine with your feet). After learning all the tricks in the class, you will be able to go home and adapt what you've learned to your machine.
So go ahead and take the class and rent the machine without giving it another thought. Have a good time. Ellen