madamekelly

User friendly is spelled Brother!

Beach Bum Quilter

I own a Brother DreamWeaver (quilt & sew - not embroidery). It's new to me, but so far it purrs like a kitten. It's a good thing the manual is easy to understand, or I'd be in trouble! I've done some piecing with it, and when I took went in for the free class even did some fmq (which I've never done before) and am looking forward to being able (with practice of course) to fmq - it moved much more smoothly than I expected. Wish I had more to tell you, but that's pretty much it. Really do love the machine, though. As others have said, machines are different, like people, and everyone loves their machines for different reasons. Hope you pick the perfect machine for you!

madamekelly

I have a brain injury that makes learning new things quite difficult, but I learned to use my new machine in about 20 minutes. ( I do keep the manual under the machine for quick reference for finding stitch settings though, because I can't remember them.)

bigredharley

Never had a minute's trouble with the Crescendo and I'm not a "give me a million lessons" girl, I'm more the give me the keys and stand back ! I did recently trade it in for the Unity (exact machine but added embroidery) which I guess says something for it too. And yes, Brother and Baby Lock are twins. The BL is a little less expensive.

Good luck with your decision.

maminstl

To add one more thing regarding the ease of use for the Crescendo - Babylock has an excellent manual. Easy to understand and well organized.

vschieve

I am also a Pfaff and Viking fan. Not Bernina. Bernina big $ and everything is "extra". Plus, Bernina made big deal when them came out with big 830 embroidery machine, that they had added the same feature Pfaff has had since the 1222 model that came out in the 70's, called IDT, where you just pull down the lever behind the pressure foot so you don't need the walking foot. Pfaff put it on all machines since. Bernina thought it was big deal when 870 ONLY came out with it. Shows how behind their technology can be.

I love my Viking Diamond Deluxe Royale and for quilting Pfaff Performance 5.0.

Sandygirl

What is your "gut" feeling?? I would go with it. We all have our fav brands.

Sandy

quiltmau

Just got the Dreamweaver and love it-I also have the BabyLock Symphony and love it as well. The Baby will go in for the first time in 3 years to be services. I broke a needle and jammed the bobbin case. My bad!! I have never had a problem with the machine and have carted them back and forth to classes. The machine are multi-faceted and are easy to learn. Manuals are easy to read

amethystmtn

SUNNYE we must be on the same wave length. I'm in the same boat. I narrowed down to the Janome 8900 and Crescendo. The brother dealer here is not helpful at all.

My thoughts are:
Janome is a great brand. I really wanted the 7700 but the dealer said it had too many problems. I had never heard that, but looked at the 8900 and really liked it. Love that the foot storage is up top, not down around the bobbin housing. Tried lots of free motion with no problems. I did not have to adjust tension once. Just dropped the feed dogs.
Over all I feel like the machine is one of the quietest ones with all the different things I tried on it.
I'm not crazy about the dealer though. They always have some combination of toddlers in the store. I love kids and understand having to take them to work. But they end up running through the place screaming and fighting. The new owner classes are not free either.

Crescendo has some new and different features than the Janome. Is also a little more expensive. The new walking foot is belt driven and amazing! Comes with the machine. It runs very smooth and no longer has the clonky walking foot sound. You can also disengage the belt and sew normally without changing out to a regular foot.

The stylus and laser light are new. The laser has several different posistion setting to the left or right of the needle. Good for keeping seams in the correct place. Easier to keep your fabric lined up since u aren't relying on the measurements on the throat plate.
With the stylus you can set a stopping point on the fabric. This helps with stopping at the end of a decorative stitch. Not stopping with the design halfway done.
Stylus also is attached to the machine, not going to get lost easy. Works on the large color screen.
I know this isn't everything just what I liked.
Stadium lighting is L.E.D. and awesome. It can be adjusted up or down.
Overall its more advanced than the Janome IMO. It also weighs a ton, not easy for me to haul to class.
Babylock dealer includes new owner classes for free. Is also very helpful.

I am also debating getting the Babylock Tiara instead of a new sewing machine. It's a sitdown long arm.
Overall I'm stuck!
Let us know what you decide and how you like the machine!