Originally Posted by
BoJangles
Hehehehehehehehe, the only reason I mentioned the FW and the 301 is because those machines are the ones that are doable to take to class! Of course, the Rocketeers (I do take mine when I want decorative stitches) the 401's, etc., are also not too heavy. BUT the 201's, 15's, even 99's, Spartans, weigh a ton - you need a caddy to take those machines to classes! I didn't mention those because, even though, I am pretty tough, - those machines are just too heavy to be carting around! No status symbol involved. In fact, most of my friends know that I have a Pfaff embroidery machine (very expensive), a long arm machine (also very expensive), a modern Janome (nice machine), but the people who do not know me must think I must be poor when I show up with my 301's or a Rocketeer! I have, as most of you know, about 50 vintage machines, but most of them stay at home when I go out to sew, although, I want to take one of my Wilcox and Gibbs one of these days just to see what everyone says about that! That would be a hoot!
Nancy
Nancy, I bet you and I get the same looks of pity:> And don't forget the 401's etc. don't FMQ well, and the throat space is critical for that so I wouldn't get a 3/4 machine for classes either. Believe it or not, I DO lug my heavy machines around. I don't just bring my 301's. I also bring my Japanese clones and Pfaffs. Did I tell you I've been going to the gym 3 times a week to get strong enough to do that? :> That's the other thing. I love SOME Japanese machines for FMQ, but some of them are plain duds. I've found about 10-15% of them just don't FMQ as nicely as others.
I think the best thing to do, is find a quilter that does what you want or dream of doing and find out what tools they use. If you only tie tops, well, you don't need a great FMQing machine. If you do or want to do more FMQing, then you need to talk to those who do and find out what they suggest. Similarly, if you piece tops and don't quilt, then a simple, straight stitch machine is all you need. Or do what I do and collect a bunch of them and weed out which ones don't suit you:>