mjpEncinitas

I bought a used sweet 16 a few years ago. I thought I would use it more than I do and if I had to do it over again I’m not sure I’d buy it. If I had a domestic machine with a large throat I’d think carefully about the purchase. I just used it on a large lap quilt and I was glad I had it. I make a lot of smaller art quilts and there’s not a big advantage with them.

I always do custom FMQ and I would never use pantographs like you’d use on a long arm so a sit down seemed like a good solution. The big disadvantage being you still have to pin the three layers together with a sit down.

I went to Road to CA. Quilt show. Spent 45 minutes trying out the sweet sixteen and another 30 minutes trying out the George. I liked both machines. I liked the George a little better but it was too expensive. The sweet 16 uses a larger bobbin size and I do prefer that. Haven’t had the problems with a larger bobbin that the George salesman mentioned. None of the sales people were pushy and I liked that. The George is more like a domestic machine the sweet sixteen faces differently. I think I would’ve preferred the way the George faces but it’s an easy transition to the way the sweet 16 faces.

I then took a full day class on quilting landscape quilts using a sweet 16. By the time the class was over I was confident on the machine. There was the instructor and another sweet 16 expert there to help us. I can highly recommend taking a class on a sit down if you haven’t already spent a lot of time on one. As an added bonus I’m now knowledgeable about how to FMQ landscape quilts.

I bought a used Sweet 16 from someone a dealer at the show led me too. The machine had been checked out by him. The woman had graduated to a long arm. That was a good experience. $3000.

I did not buy the stitch regulator. I tried it out when trying out the machine at the booth and didn’t care for it. I also spoke with all the quilters in the class who owned sweet 16. Many didnt own or didn’t use the stitch regulator. I decided as many quilters do, that I would get better at this with practice.

there was not much of a learning curve. I was already proficient at FMQ on my Janome 6600 and this transferred over. It’s a bit challenging getting the tension correct on the mid arm. I was already proficient at changing the bobbin tension so this helped. I never took any classes on the machine. It’s not that much different than a domestic and I had the 6 hour class with two experts there to help the class. I used a YouTube video to help with the separate bobbin winder.


Hope this helps