I have a portable Janome and a full size Kenmore machine. I have been looking at the Baby Lock machines. I heard that Brother makes the Baby Lock machines, just like Janome makes the Kenmore machines. Does anyone know if this is true? Anyone have a Baby Lock, if so, what kind do you have and how do you like it?

I've heard that Baby Lock makes Brother as a less expensive machine. I have a Baby Lock Quest Plus and I love it.

I have a Baby Lock Quilter's Choice Professional that I got about 1 1/2 years ago and I absolutely LOVE it! It sews like a champ (has a semi-industrial motor) and is very smooth and solid. Being a machine made for quilting, it doesn't have any fancy options - straight stitch only with 4 settings for the feed dogs. I have learned to FM with it as well. I highly recommend this machine. :thumbup:

Ahhh...so it is the other way around.....Baby Lock makes the Brother machines. Thanks for the correction! I love the idea of the Baby Lock Quilter's Choice Professional.....looks like an excellent machine. I have also had my eye on the Ellegante 2. (dreaming) I want a nice embroidery machine too.

I am not sure which one makes the other one, but I have a Brother 8500 that is the best sewing machine I have ever had and it embroiders, too, and I have a Bernina 1130 (dd uses it now), a Bernina 830 Record (great machine, too), Featherweight (worth its weight in gold!), and had a Viking 1+ (great, but sold it to buy the Brother 8500)!!!! These machines (which were all top of the line at one time) are quiet, so they hum when they sew - No Clack, Clack Clack is heard at all!!! Just a very light humming sound!!! All of these have stood the test of time, too!

Yes, it is true!

I have been using BabyLock machines for years, currently own Ellagante, Elure, Evolve Serger and just bought Juki TL98Q. I've been teaching machine embroidery and quilting classes at the local BabyLock store and most of my students have either a BabyLock or Brother machines. I love my machines and the only problem I've seen both in class and in my own machines is that the needle thread can get caught in the brass bearing and will cause the machine to seize. They best way to avoid this problem is to always cut your thread on the top of the machine and pull it out from the needle. If you have a thread that shreds or breaks inside, get a little flashlight and sewing tweezers and look for the wayward thread. I would be happy to help you with any questions, if I don't know the answers I know to to call to get the answers. BTW the Juki machine is the same as the Quilt Pro, they are both semi industrial and have a speed of 1500 SPM, are very easy to operate, easy to adjust tensions for 2 thread color quilting. The walking foot is heavy duty and has made me a lover of walking foot quilting and the compensating foot makes chain peicing quick and accurate. And no I don't work for the store and don't get commissions, just a huge fan.

I have the exact same machines as gail-r and I love the Baby Lock Ellegante for everything but piecing. I use the Juki 98Q for piecing.

Question for Gail-r. Do you ever use the serger for making quilts. I keep intending to try but haven't yet.

I also have the Embellisher but haven't really used it for anything. I let my grandson's play around with it when they are interested.

I have the brother too.

The Babylock is looking really good to me also. The price seems to be more reachable - but being a senior citizen, I wonder if I should jump in. I have so many machines already - and they are fine for different things - maybe I should wait? I heard there are no machines in Heaven, so I am torn!!!

gail-r, I had a Viking Saphire 870 and just traded it last week for an new Espire. It is so much nicer. What is you opinion and experience with Espire? I used it in the Eleanor Burns class in January at Road to California quilt show when they provided machines for the day long class, and loved it, and it is what she uses. The store I got it from offers 20 free classes to learn how to use it, so I thought I would get used to it first then take the classes. I have already put together an entire quilt since I got it 3 days ago. I love the embelishment stitches, although there are not very many compared to the Saphire 870, but the machine is so much smoother and easy on my fabric that the loss of designs seems worth it. Anyway...any opinions on the Espire, while on the subject of Baby Lock, would be great. I also have a Designer I Viking as a back up machine and it does embroidery, so I didn't need another embroidery machine, and it runs really smooth and nice compared to the 870, also. I use it to take to classes.

I purchased a Babylock Proline machine in 1996 and other than using my Featherweight for piecing I have literally run this machine to death and it just keeps on humming. I am in the market for a new machine and I will buy a Babylock again. I only want a new machine for the advanced options such as needle up and down and the other features that new machines have. They are made by Brother which is one of the really good ones. I hope that you try out any machine that you decide on and that should convince you of your choice. I don't think you can go wrong with a Babylock. Good luck on your purchase

I really like the features of the Ellegante 2. I have not tried my hand at embroidery yet. I have a friend who has the Brother PR-620. It is an embroidery only machine. My only concern is that I heard it is better to buy a separate embroidery machine because you don't want to "tie up" your sewing machine when trying to do embroidery. Does anyone have any thoughts/advice about this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am in the market for a Babylock and had narrowed my choices to the Quest Plus and the Espire. After doing research, I eliminated the Espire. the best quote I got for the QP (BLQ2-PL) is $1,100.

The reason why I eliminated the Espire is that it has a drop-in bobbin and no built-in walking foot. It has the cutter which I am not crazy about.

Incidentally, I am getting it to replace my latest Pfaff. Pfaffy and I just don't get along that well. We thought we were going to be good friends but we have differences in personality. lol

Which is an embroidery machine for a decent price and of course, decent designs?

I have had a Baby Lock 8500 for 20 years. Other than normal routine maintenance (every couple of years or every time I think about it), it has never given me a bit of trouble. It is a great machine and I hate to think of having to replace it someday. In those 20 years I have made approx. 90 quilts so it gets used plenty. I love my Baby Lock. I don't know where they are made now but mine says "Made in Japan".

Hey Stitchinwitch, love your board name!! This is something I get asked a lot so please don't think that I am being rude when I reply with several questions, k?

1. Is this going to be your only multi stitch machine?
2. What types of embroidery do you want to do, tee's, quilts, jeans?
3. What size hoop/hoops do you want?
4. How often do you think you will be embroidering? Do you plan on doing commercial embroidery?
5. how often do you think you will be doing other sewing with this machine?
6. Which embroidery software do you use or plan on using?
7. Are you planning on doing free motion quilting with this machine, if so are you planning on putting it into a cabinet or on a table? Cabinets can be very expensive and there are some table arrangements that can be very cheap and actually be more junctional, convenient and quilter friendly than the most expensive cabinet. Just won't be fancy and pretty. Which brings another question, where will you have it setup? Sewing room or in an area where everyone who comes to your door will see your machine and (if your like me) mess?
8. What is your price expectaions and are you thinking of buying new or used?

I would love to help you make the decision that is right for your needs and wants. And to offer suggestions on where to scrimp and where to splurge.

I didn't address designs or method of transmitting to your embroidery machine, but will be able to better address these things when I know more of what you want and how you intend to use it.

Hope this isn't being too nosey.

Yes I have made 5 or 6 of the log cabin style qayg quilts. I got the info free from the net but (being old) I can't remember exactly where. Also, been watching the Bargello tute here and am wondering why we couldn't do that on the serger. Would certainly make speedy work out of the top, I love using my serger. Have you ever made the wire ribbons on yours? I have started making some and decorating baskets with quilt fabric scraps. Looks great and can be fun way to decorate around your quilts.

Me 2!!! I have one I got on a quilting frame, and I love it. It's very reliable. :thumbup:

I used to teach at a locally owned Viking store located inside of the JoAnns in Draper, UT. I have always said that if I couldn't get a BabyLock my next choice would be a Viking. The ones that I had experience with in classes had an equally beautiful stitch quality, many of the good/great embroidery edit features. They are a tiny bit less user friendly than the BL's, but a ton more user friendly than some models of Bernina and Pfaff. Viking machines are known for their durability, several of the professional longarm quilters I know use Viking machines for peicing. If you are looking at the huge hoops and machines that can handle huge embroidery stitch counts, the Viking Diamond will do a great job for you. More expensive than most of the comparable machines. Only downside in my book or maybe I should say pocket book.

Forgot to say, yes Espire is a great machine and great investment. If your dealer is offering "20" free classes, yes yes and yes, take advantage of every class. Most dealers only offer 2 or 3, you must have a very customer oriented dealer. Don't let such a great dealer go unrewarded, tell all of your sewing buddy's about them. If you would be kind enough to pm the name and location of your dealer, I would love to recommend them also.

[quote=gail-r]Hey Stitchinwitch, love your board name!! This is something I get asked a lot so please don't think that I am being rude when I reply with several questions, k?

Thank you,not at all and K!

1. Is this going to be your only multi stitch machine? no, I have a designer 1, Janome 5000. and several older Singers.
2. What types of embroidery do you want to do, tee's, quilts, jeans? Mainly quilts.
3. What size hoop/hoops do you want? Larger than a 5 x 7
4. How often do you think you will be embroidering? Do you plan on doing commercial embroidery? Embroidering daily for personal use.
5. how often do you think you will be doing other sewing with this machine? Depends - I have several others for that.
6. Which embroidery software do you use or plan on using? I have 4D Extra
7. Are you planning on doing free motion quilting with this machine, - SURE!!if so are you planning on putting it into a cabinet or on a table? It makes no never mind! Cabinets can be very expensive and there are some table arrangements that can be very cheap and actually be more junctional, convenient and quilter friendly than the most expensive cabinet. Just won't be fancy and pretty. Which brings another question, where will you have it setup? Sewing room or in an area where everyone who comes to your door will see your machine and (if your like me) mess? I have a sewing room to keep my messes to myself - or TRY to!
8. What is your price expectaions and are you thinking of buying new or used? Price? looking for options. Would LOVE to have the Bernina 8500 but will not be able to really get my $$ worth since I AM a senior! New preferably.

Hope this isn't being too nosey - nope!

Thank you for narrowing it down!

gail-r:.... Sew and Vac in Upland, CA is the name of my dealer. The name of the fabric store I am devoted to is Fabric Patch in Montclair, CA. They sell Janome and everyone who has bought from them love them, but I just had my heart set on a Baby Lock. Sew and Vac is just a few blocks from my home so, except for lugging the machine in and out of my truck, it will be easy to get there. The classes are also offered every Monday morning and evening. I will let you know more about them after I take a few if you would like. They told me they have projects to do to use the machine. Sounds good if they aren't too involved since I already have so many projects going, but by actually applying things to a project it will be easier to remember how to use the different things on the machine. So far I have tried everything but putting in a zipper and buttonholes this weekend that I am aware of..although there are several feet I have not yet used, so there has to be tons of things I have yet to learn. I used every decorative stitch on a scrape quilt and it was a lot of fun and really pretty. I find using the lettering is soooo much easier to deal with and use than the Viking. I am falling in love!!

Please tell me more about your Baby Lock on the quilting frame (picture if possible). I'm curious as to what it looks like, how much room it takes and what the advantages are. I have not explored quilting frame options, but am greatly interested in hearing from those that have... Thanx.

[quote=stitchinwitch]Ok, thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. There is 2 machines that I would recommend.

1. Ellegante or Ellegante 2. The reason I think you would be happy with this machine: It has a top embroidery speed of 1000 stitches per minute, with that said I have mention, none of the embroidery machines will actually stitch every design at the top speed. It will stitch the tiny straight stitches at the top speed, satin stitches will take longer. So, if you have a design that has 20,000 stitches it may take much longer than 20 minutes to sew. But it will be much faster that a machine that has a top speed of 600 SPM. For some of the beautiful embroidered quilts you will want a fast machine. I'm currently making the Sharman's Vintage quilt and each block takes about 8 to 10 hours of embroidery and there is 20 blocks in the quilt. This machine comes with 4 hoops, 2"x2", 4"x4", 5"x7" and 7"x11". I find that these hoop sizes work great, the large hoop can help you reduce the number of hoopings on a block if you can combine some of the designs. But at the same time you have the flexabilty to use a smaller hoop for some designs with will save $'s using a smaller amount of stablizer. This machine has a huge stitch compacity and will handle designs that large stitch count. Some of the smaller machines have a 25,000 stitch limit so you can only do designs that have less that 25,000 stitches or you have to split the design up into 2 (or more) designs using your software. I regularly do designs that are over 75,000 stitches. It automacticly cuts jump stitches and has an accurate bobbin empty notifcation. It does have some nice designs built in, one of the differences between the BL machines and Brother is the built in designs, BL comes with Nancy Zieman designs and Brother has Disney. Of course you can buy designs for both. The mode that is preferable to transfer designs to this machine is by a USB stick, sometimes called a thumb drive or removable disk. You put the stick in your computer copy or save the design to your stick, remove the stick from your computer and insert it directly into the machine. These sticks are getting larger so the smaller sticks (meaning with less storage compacity) work great and are getting very inexpensive. Ellegante has a good varity of deco stitches and a smooth operation. It is also upgradable, some upgrades are free some are rather expensive. One of the down sides of this machine may come in doing free motion quilting, It has a drop in bobbin and adjusting bobbin tension is not recommended, however I have done it. So this makes doing 2 thread color quilting more difficult getting the tensions right so that you don't get little pokie-dots on your quilt. The other drawback may be in doing walking foot quilting on very heavy or on very thick quilts, you can adjust the presser foot pressure and the amount of lift but it is more limited that quilting models. Don't be afraid to buy a used machine from a good dealer, usually if they sold the machine originally they can give you a repair history and service history. At the bottom of the LCD screen is a icon that looks like a peice of paper, when you press it you will get several pages where you can make many adjustments, but you will always know what the factory settings because they have those numbers in white with a blaci background. So you don't have to be a fraid that you won't get the machine back to where it was set. Also, if you buy used from a private seller, and they tell you they have not had the machine serviced, you can look on page 3 (I think, may be pg 4) it will show you how many embroidery stitches have been sewn on the machine. probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million stitches on my elle. Service techs will usually reset this when they do general servicing, you can also write this number down before taking to be repaired and see how many stitches they actually put on your machine. Often times they will put a little sail boat design under your needle, so if the design has a few thousand stitches you will be able to see that your new stitch count. With the new Ellisimo machine out, the price has dropped on new Ellegante machines around $3500 on sale and I have seen many used under $2500.

The second machine would be the Ellageo, has slower stitch speed, uses floppy cards to transfer designs, largest hoop is 6"x10". If your dealer has a new one he may be will to make you a great deal. Used is usually around $1500. I'm not sure if it cuts jump stitches, maybe someone on the board can tell us that.

Both machines have a colored lcd screen, the B&W screens can make it difficult to know which part of the design is sewing which in turn makes it more difficult to change thread colors to your own choices instead of using the recommended colors.

You could put either machine on a table, if you want to convert your table to a quilting table just use the foam insulation boards to bring your table surface up to the bed level (Home depot has them in various thicknesses and already cut to 2'x4') then cover with the thick clear vinyl and your quilts will move easily on your table.

I know this is starting to look like a novel but wanted to give as much info as possible. I agree with you about getting the most out of your investment when you are older, I'm 64 and my dealer really wanted me to upgrade to the Ellisimo which sells for 8k and I like the machines I have and thought I could make a lot of quilts for 8 thousand dollars. Hope this very long post gives the info you are looking for to make the right decision for you.

I am in the market for a Babylock also and found a dealer up the hill who is more reputable than the smarmie one in town. She had quoted me $1299 for the BL Quest Plus and I have a $100 off coupon in conjunction with the local quilt show. The lowest quote I got was $1,100 from a dealer about 45 minutes away but the one I like doesn't price match. What's a girl to do?

What would you do?

Thank you gail-r - I just received a postcard in the mail saying that the Babylock dealer is having a sale! They are an hour away and hopefully I will be able to check it out. You have given me alot of info and when I go in I need to request a test drive! Thanks so much for taking the time to research this!

I would buy the $1100 machine and save yourself $99.00. But I would let your favorite dealer know that it is only $99.00 difference and you would really prefer to buy from them but you also have to get the best price you can on the machine. On a new machine you will get the same BabyLock factory warranty, the same machine, the same accessories, where is your incentive to buy the same machine for more money. I love to support my favorite dealers and quilt stores, but on a limited fixed income and with todays economy I can't pay someone an extra $100 just because I like them better.

Good point. I spoke with a quilting gal at work who works in that neck of the woods. She made a face when I mentioned the dealer and told me that the last time she took her machine to be serviced, they didn't do a good job. For example, the light bulb was not working when she took it in - and it wasn't working after the service even though she had noted that as an item to be done.

I am debating on a baby lock machine....does it quilt queen size quilts easily?

i have both machines they work the same, nice running

gail=r,
thanks for all the info you are providing, very helpful for us that are looking for an embroidery machine. My dealer has offered me the Sophia 2. How would you compare it to the Ellegante you have described? the Sophia 2 new is about $2000. I know it has a USB type A (not sure what type A means)
I believe the loop is 4x4 with option of one a little bit larger.
I want to buy a machine that I won't need to change for years to come. I do have a Pfaff for quilting with the IDF which I won't change for nothing in the world (well, unless there was a machine with the IDF and stitch regulator.
Looking forward for your input adn thanks in advance
andrea

MadQuilter-
what is teh Pfaff that you don't get along with? I cannot think of not having a Pfaff for quilting.
andrea

I have a Babylock Espire and love it. When I took my free lesson, another lady was there with a Brother that was almost identical. I asked if they were made by Babylock. She told me that Babylock did not make Brother and that Brother did not make Babylock, but they used the same manufacturing plant and that's why the machines look similiar. They give them the specs and they build it for them.

I guess it would be like two soda plants using the same bottling company.

It is the 2058 and it is sitting in the closet. One of these days I plan to sell it. Just because I don't get along with it (nothing wrong with the machine after all) doesn't mean it can't be a good machine for someone else.

I ended up buying the Babylock Espire and LOVELOVELOVE her."Quilla" is a real lady. I took the classes for the machine and got to know her well. Now I am taking quilting classes so I get better at the FMQ. All of my projects so far have been small practice pieces but I don't know why she wouldn't quilt a large quilt. The throat space is nice and open! Much bigger than on the Pfaff.

The other gals in the class have either Janome or Pfaff and they are continually fighting with their bobbin tension. My Babylock has not given me any grief NO MATTER how the tension was set. No rats nests, no tangles and when the stitches were pulled it was user error (too little gas - too tight turns)

OMG....2K is WAY too much money for the Sofia. You should be able to get the Ellure Plus for that amount of money. Alot more machine with 5 x 7 Embroidery area. The Sofia sells in my neck of the woods for $600-800.

I have a Brother SQ-9000 for piecing (lower end price wise, but is very solid and has some good quilting features for a machine at this price level), and a BabyLock Quilters Choice Professional on a NewJoy frame for quilting. I love both. Brother machines are truly solid little workhorses....I have had 3, of which DH now uses one and 1 is stored for grandaughter when she's a bit older.

The BabyLock is a DREAM!! I love quilting with it.

You really can't go wrong with either of these brands.

[quote=Boscobd]I have a Baby Lock Quilter's Choice Professional that I got about 1 1/2 years ago and I absolutely LOVE it! It sews like a champ (has a semi-industrial motor) and is very smooth and solid. Being a machine made for quilting, it doesn't have any fancy options - straight stitch only with 4 settings for the feed dogs. I have learned to FM with it as well. I highly recommend this machine. :thumbup:[/quote
They are very nice machines and yes they are solid.

I have it also and love it a real work horse

Don't believe the rumor of "no machines in heaven" God has many plans for us, if there are no machines then he will have something better. In other words buy what you want here and enjoy it.