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.

Welcome to the board, Clay and wife from Minnesota! I grew up in Fort Atkinson, WI, about 35 miles east of Madison. We hope to hear and see all about your quilting adventures.

Leslie

I have two Babylocks. One is the Elizabeth which is great for piecing and I have the Crescendo which is also great for piecing and it has a larger throat for machine quilting. Hope this helps.

Ps: I did own 2 Berninas but have sold one and have the other for embroidery.

Leslie, Fort is just down the road from me. We have been to the Fireside there for dinner and a play a few times. We're old neighbors. :wave:

Again, thanks everyone for the nice warm welcomes. My wife has one top done right now and is working on a second project. I just told her today that I needed to take some pictures of her work to post on the forums. While she is currently sewing on an ancient Singer, it's less about the tool and more about the operator's skills set.

That old Singer would probably make some of you just cringe. I know that she is looking forward to a new machine and the comforts that will come along with it. By sewing on a basic machine for so long, she will really appreciate the features that come with the new technologies.

Now I just have to figure out how to post pictures here.

Hi Clay welcome to you and your wife from NE Ohio.

Welcome from Michigan!:)

Welcome from Massachusetts! If you have a Janome dealer near you, I would go check them out. I have 2 Janomes and love them! My Horizon has a very large harp space and came with many feet. Janome comes with many feet as a standard feature, which saves you from buying them separately. In 10 years I have had no problems with either of my machines. They sew like a dream!

:) welcome from se TX

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*** HI! Y'all from the upstate of South Carolina.
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Again everyone, thanks for making me feel welcome here. Much appreciated.

You haven't found your way over to the Vintage Board section yet - lots and lots of people on this board sewing very happily with vintage machines (between DH and I, we have over 150 sewing machines).

My husband is very much an "enabler" when it comes to sewing machines. With his encouragement, I upgraded from a Bailey 15" quilter to a HQ 24" Fusion. Bought the Pro-Stitcher this spring, and DH is having more fun with that than I am (I prefer FMQ).

My main machine is 35 years old, and when I looked at new ones, decided I'd do better to buy a long-arm than a regular machine.

Hi from Fon Du Lac. Hope you find the machine of your dreams. I don't have a machine that does this but I would love an auto thread cutter! saves wasted thread and time snipping them.
peace

A cutter is on my wife's "must have" list. For someone that isn't a tailor, I find it interesting that cutters can be on a machine that sells for a little over $300 and then there are machine brands that you don't get a cutter until you spend $2500 or more. I just find this strange but the wife and I are trying to shorten the learning curve together.

Macybaby, I bet the quality vintage machines are built like tanks. I would imagine the inexpensive machines, like the one my wife is currently using, are still not very desirable. Cool that you and your husband are having fun together. My wife has tagged along with me on so many of my crazy hobbies and while this might not be so common, I'm having fun reading reviews and comparing ideas with many on the forums.

Again, everyone, thanks for making me feel welcome.

Welcome Clay and wife. I'm fairly new as well (2 months now)and everyone is so helpful. Lots of info here, I can spend lots of time here going through all the different Threads.

Six trips to sewing machine shops & Quilt shops later, on Friday the 13th, we bought a Brother NQ1300PRW! We are both looking forward to learning the machine and asking specific questions to help use the new tool more effectively.

Watch out for some dumb newbie questions from me, they are coming.

I'm glad you found a machine .That's a great feeling. I'm sure you're both happy with the decision and your wife is creating not waiting. Congratulations!

I'm going to have to learn how to post pictures on this site. My wife is working on a couple of projects at once. I'm typing this morning and she is piecing next to me between making some goodies for Thanksgiving.

The new machine has helped with many time saving features and the precision of the piecing has also increased with the new tool. Life is good.

Welcome from WI, good luck finding the right sewing machine.

Welcome to you and your wife.

Welcome to both of you from Oklahoma!!!!!!