Advice on second sewing machine please!
 

My daughter and her family are moving out of town, so I will be visiting her in longer chunks of time. I'd like to be able to continue to at least make quilt tops while I'm visiting and the kids are in school. I have a Bernina at home, but can't really afford another expensive machine - and my daughter doesn't sew. Do you have advice for a decent but not too expensive machine that I could buy for their new house? I hate fighting with machines, so if you think I should just go ahead and buy another quality machine, please tell me. Thanks so much.

I have two Berninas -- it is much easier to sew on the same brand. I can use the same feet on each machine also. I have an 830 for my main machine and and 350 for my "travel" machine. I like the quality of both machines.

I agree it's a good idea to stick with the same brand if you can, so you can (hopefully) share feet and bobbins between the machines and save yourself a few bucks. I think I'd start with a list of features - your "must haves" and your "would like to haves" and then take it down to your dealer and see what sort of Bernies they can show you with those features. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a good one used!

I'm a Janome person, so both my main machine and my travel machine are Janome. They can share bobbins but not, unfortunately, feet. (One is high shank, one is low shank.)

If you want to stick with Bernina, would it be desirable for you to get a somewhat vintage one as your second machine? Look in your area and DD's new town either dealers or craigslist? I see vintage Berninas on my local cl fairly often.

Or you could try a featherweight. The feet are not expensive and the machines are cheaper than a bernina, but are of good quality.

I have two older Bernina from the 90s. I have been looking for a lightweight portable but I am so spoiled with having a Bernina. Vintage Bernina seem to hold their value.

I like my Featherweight as a backup. It only does straight stitching, but it's nice for piecing. You can usually get them in the $300 range.

I agree that you definitely want to stick with the same brand of machine because of the feet. A second machine doesn't have to be hi tech it just needs to sew your basic stitches, afterall, you're not going to be doing free motion quilting on it. Talk with your Bernina dealer I am sure they have a trade in that you can purchase. I own a BabyLock that I use at home but have an older Elna that I keep up at my girlfriends house so we can get together and have sewing marathons. The Elna uses the same bobbin as my BabyLock and it's also a short shank for I can use the same feet. This machine is about 40 years old and I love it, and I got it from my BabyLock dealer.

I have a Brother Project Runway LE that I got at Walmart for about 150 - 175 or so about 5 years ago. The thing is a work horse, does a great job and doesn't give me any trouble and it's light weight. I use it for piecing and other general sewing. My more expensive machine I use for FMQ.

If you can find a used Bernina, that might be the way to go.