Southern Wisconsin Here
 

I've been reading and doing research on the board for several weeks. I'm not new to forums, but definitely new to quilting forums.

This might be a little strange, but I don't quilt; I do research and my wife is the quilter. We have been shopping for a new machine for a little over a month and the posts on this board have been really helpful in that vein.

My wife is surprised at how much energy and effort I have been putting into the research of helping her decide which is the best machine for her.

We both look forward to exchanging ideas on the board, learning and sharing our troubles and successes along the way.

Clay

Hey Clay, you are a super man to help your wife with this decision. Make sure she trys out various machines like she would checking out a new car. I bought my Bernina 1530 almost 20 years ago and I am still quilting on it. Look forward to see some of her quilts posted on this site.

How great of you to be so interactive with your wife's sewing. As far as machines go, the best advice I can give, and I'm sure others will agree, find your closest sewing machine dealer, be it BabyLock, Bernina, Janome, whatever, go there, check out the various machines - a good dealer will let you try out the various machines. They can be pricey, so don't be sticker shocked. I have a BabyLock Espire - it's for sewing/quilting - not embroidery. My dealer is great and strictly BabyLock machines. He does sell tradeins, no matter what brand, after he cleans and does any repairs. My mother always said you want a dealer who is close because if you need help you don't want to be driving a great distance. You'll get some good advice from the ladies here on this board. Good luck and Welcome Aboard!!

My wife and I have always done many things together. We use to fish walleye tournaments together. I tend to be the researcher in the family. I enjoy learning about all of the technical aspects of things. I don't know if I will turn into a quilter, but I tend to be a good sounding board for her thoughts.

On her current project: Christmas Memories by Diane Tomlinson a table top quilt, she was having some issues with getting all of the pieces together in her mind. I'm glad that I can help out once in a while. We're having some fun going to new shops together. Now if she ends up with a machine that can sew Cordura weight material, I might play with some heavy sporting equipment type of bags/pouches. I think that I will leave the quilting to her though.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

We have been visiting many of the local quilt / sewing machine shops. One of the brands that interest us is Juki. I don't have a Juki dealer within 50 miles. Would you rule out this brand if you didn't have any dealers in your area?

Other value price point machines that fall within our price / performance criteria are Baby Lock, Brother and Janome. Bernina, Viking and Pfaff make great machines but the pricing is more than we wish to commit to today for the features that we are considering.

Again, thanks for the words of encouragement.

Clay

What are on the must-have list and what are on the like-to-have features?

Must have: Minimum of 8" in the harp area, auto threader, Auto tension with manual over ride, Up/down, auto cutter, more than one light (preferably LED), variable speed, machine durability, ability to sew through heavier material, knee lift, extension table all with a Street price on Black Friday less than $1200.

Nice to have but not a deal breaker, auto bobbin sensor (I know, it's never going to happen in this price range), lots of stitch patterns.

When I made the list I pretty much described a Juki HZL-F600. We do like the Brother NQ series but the NQ1300PRW isn't going to be able to meet the price point even on Black Friday. Not even sure if the NQ900PRW will meet those specs. When you lay it all out like that there seems to be a big arrow pointing toward Juki, BUT the NO Local shop has me pausing at this point.