Attenion New York City Quilters....
 

especially those in Brooklyn or Staten Island. Do you know of a shop that sells sewing machines? My sister lives in Brooklyn and is need of a new machine. She has been using a Singer she bought back in the 1970's and it has been a good machine but isn't up the amount of quillting she has been doing the past several years.

She would like to find a place where she can try out machines and/or take one home on a trial basis and also have some lessons provided for using the machine. You would think a boro as large as Brooklyn with 4 million people would have at least one quilt shop or sewing machine store but so far she hasn't found one. Joann's on Staten Island does sell machinesl but does not provide any customer service.

I know of at least one sort of nearby my area (meaning over an hour's drive) but she would like to buy from someplace closer to home. as it takes her over an hour to get to my house.

Are we way off base or are those services things of the past?

She did find a shop that sells and repair vacuums and sewing machines. They would order an Elna for her but if she didn't like the machine after using it a bit she couldn't return it, so his shop is out for her. He told her Pfaff makes Elnas for the US. Is that true?

I'm not in NY but googled it just for the fun of it....I found this page, looks like Sew Right Sewing Machines has good reviews! :)

http://www.superpages.com/yellowpage...NY/T-Brooklyn/

http://www.cityquilter.com/

They are located at:

The City Quilter
133 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Via Phone:

212-807-0390
fax 212-807-9451

They are closed on Mondays but open the rest of the week. I visit this store every time I am in the city. My son gave me a gift certificate for Christmas. Planning on going into the city next month to spend it.

There are two shops in Brooklyn/Queens: Sew Right (223-20 Union Turnpike Oakland Gardens, NY 11364
(718) 468-5858) and Sew Time Creative Sewing Center (78-35B Springfield Blvd, Bayside, NY (718) 776-1900)
These two store are with in one block of each other. They are dealers for Janome, Phaff, Babylock plus they sell many other brands.
Also City Quilter is the Bernia dealer in NYC. All three stores let you try out the machines and offer classes. I have been to all 3 stores store and Sew Right is the better one in the Brooklyn/Queens area. If you want a Bernia City Quilter has a sale every year on the Bernia's they use in the classroom.

Harvey at Sew Right Sewing Machines is the man when it comes to buying a machine. He handles everything including service, maintenance and repairs. I have been using him for about 20 years, I think, and would not go anywhere else. He sells all models and has trade-ins to sell as well. I would never go anywhere but there! Only problem is parking--though that is the least of it.

Thanks everyone, especiall Petey and NYCquilter, your info is just what she's looking for so I copied your info and sent it to my sister. She's an experienced NYC drives and she'll find a parking spot OK, or have her DH circle the blockl while she's in the shop, LOL! May in Jersey

My sister wants to thank everyone for their input, I passed along everyone's replies and she made note of everything so she was armed with all the things she need to check out before purchasing a new machine, helpful staff, intro classes, workshops, maintenance, travel time as well as a quality machine. Well, she found a shop that suited her to a T. It's about a half hour from her home, parking is too much of a problem and they are a Bernina dealer. When I spoke to her last night she was playing with her new machines and she'll soon to have her intro class and is planning to sign up for their free motion workshop in April. She's not a computer user and was floored by the amount of info I got for her in just a day or so. So a Big Thank You for my sister Carol in Brooklyn. May in Jersey