Bewildered and perplexed on a new machine
 

I just got my toes wet with free mothion quilting. Currently I am sewing on a very capable Babylock machine for piecing, but the 6 1/2" harp really has me strugling with the bulk. I know about table space, and that's a different issue. It's just I don't have enough room to move around for design.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on a machine as I'm no spring chicken (78) and don't have such a long life span ahead of me. The other thing that bothers me about the smaller machines is it is hard to see the quilt behind the body of the machine. So I thought the higher harp machines like the Juki 2010Q might help a little with that issue. But the width is only 8 1/2" I believe.

I have read just about every post on here about machines I think, but every time I look at one that someone talks about on here that has say a 11" harp width (whlich would be nice) it doesn't have the height that I like, and cost a whole lot more.

Is there such a thing as 11" harp width machine that has a 6" height as well, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I really don't want to have to spend more than $2,000 for another machine.

I totally understand what you are saying... have you thought about maybe investigating a used sit-down long arm? My guess is that you might be able to find one more reasonably priced at a dealer who also sells longarms and may have a gently used one taken in on trade. Sometimes, like with sewing machine trade ins you can leave your name on a list of people to contact when something suitable is traded in. Just a thought... you shouldnt have to struggle doing what you love and gives you joy every day!

I'm not clear why you need to see the quilt behind the machine?
An alternative thought...:) you could get 11 king size quilts quilted here for 2000 dollars, 22 if you do them double sided like I do. So, many more than that if you make lap/twin size quilts. Just a thought.

I have a 11" harp, but my limit on doing my own quilts is 40 X 40 tops. And on any size harp I have found it much less stressful and easier to use straight line or increasing circles and my walking foot, not free motion wavy lines that require constant shifting.

some quilters on this forum do wonders with their quilts with regular sewing machines with small throat space. not me necessarily. But hopefully they will chime in here.

look at the industrial straight stitch machines - you might be surprised at what you can get for the $$$ if you don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

I got to agree...I have an 11" harp, but the drag with larger than 40X 40 puts a whole lot of strain on my neck and shoulders. Anything over the size of a baby or lap quilt...goes to the long armer...and she does a wonderful job!

I quilt all of my quilts on my Bernina machine which has a 7.5 ich harp. The key is to ditch stitch around every block or major element if you do not have blocks. Then, you never have more than half of the quilt scrunched (not rolled) under the harp and you are only working to quilt one small area at a time. I have done lots of queen sized quilts this way. I recently went to another workshop with my guilt and there were 3 longarmers there. The class was for using regular machines. When asked why they were there all three said they wanted more personal control and no computer generated patterns. That told me something important.....

If I were you, I would look at other methods of minimizing bulk when free motion quilting. I bought Marti Mitchells's book, Machine Quilting in Sections and I was able to free motion quilt a top that was just over 100" both ways on my domestic Juki using one of her methods. It was easy to do and that is a lot less expensive than buying a new machine.

I made and a king sizes quilt about 113 x 117". by Marti Mitchell's book quilting in sections. Sewing the sections together was a bit challenging but it worked. I can quilt - FMQ a large double quilt on either of my 9" throat straight stitch only machines. Not a big struggle.

Agree with Jingle. Also, I learned to FMQ on a dinky mechanical Brother machine from Costco. It was definitely doable. You are only quilting what's under the needle so there is a lot of rearranging. I tried rolling which was not easy, and then I learned to puddle which is better. I finally upgraded to a Brother PQ1500 which isn't all that expensive in the scheme of things. I recently did a queen sized which was not hard. I started in the middle and rotated the quilt clockwise and there kept getting less and less under the arm of the machine. Also on the dinky machine I always started in the middle and worked out and then it got easier as I progressed.

Yes, that's the way I have been doing it. Since you have the Brother PQ 1500 machine, let me ask you a question if you don't mind. The price on those is very appealing right now on Amazon ($539) and I have been tempted, but what it doesn't have that the Juki has is speed control. I have a real pedal problem, as I have bad neropothy in my legs (due to chemo), which makes my feet numb (very little feeling), so I thought the speed control on the Juki would be helpful, especially in light of how fast these machines can go, compared to the one I'm used to using. When using a quilting foot in FMQ, how difficult do you find it to control the speed on the 1500?

For those who mentioned to me, it would probably be cheaper to send the tops out. I know your right (especially if I purchased a more expensive machine), but the thing is, I find I really enjoy the free motion quilting. I'm still lousy at it, but I'm getting better, and that makes me happy.

Lets face it. There is nothing practical about quilting these days . People don't do it to save money by using sacks or old clothes for their bedding. Quite the contrary. It is a very expensive hobby. There is something very appealing about quilts, and I enjoy making something I think is pretty.

And like the song, " a girls just gotta have some fun". :)









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I think that is a good price. There really isn’t a big learning curve. The manual is good. I don’t have trouble controlling the speed. There are hacks you can do with the foot pedal like taping something to it so you can only press it down so far. For me the fun part of quilting is the FMQ. For me personally I want to do my entire quilt from start to finish. Right now I don’t have any limitations except my own skill but I really do enjoy the FMQ. I watch a lot of videos and do practice. My work doesn’t duplicate a computerized long arm but that isn’t my goal.

I FMQ my own quilts- all sizes. I have a Janome 6600 that has a 9" harp space. It works for me. Doesn't seem to bother me not seeing in front. One thing that is very helpful is I can set the speed I want so I find a speed that works for me and set the machine at that and go to town. I FMG a baby quilt last night and it took me less than 30 minutes. I wanted a soft quilt and didn't do real close meanders. I enjoy it but it does take practice to find your rhythm that works for you. The hardest part is getting the big quilts sandwiched together but I just think how much I am saving and move ahead. I like to do my own quilts from to finish. It helps if you just take a piece of paper and pencil and play with meandering around. Each time you do a quilt it will get better. Practice, practice. It's not for everyone but give it a try, you might like it. I will post a pix of the baby quilt when I get it bound and labeled. Good luck!

I think investing in a great quilting table or table set up would be better then a new machine. I have the Arrow large table and I can quilt a queen size with hardly any drag at all. For king size I use a folding table on the side. I have it back to a wall so no dropping off the table. I bought a LA light stand for overhead lighting. No shadows at all on my sewing space.

Have you checked out Bailey mid-arm machines? I only know to contact them on the web (I think their business is in Maine). Don't know if they have a table top model or if only the ones needing a frame are available. But they are a lot less money and the one I had worked great.

Have you considered the "Quilt As You Go" method for getting your bigger quilts quilted? You quilt each block or section, then join them. It makes the quilting much more enjoyable with a regular sewing machine.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...o-t304427.html (wide sashing)

https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...l-t283918.html (narrow sashing)

No, I haven't tried that yet Sewbizgirl, but I have watched many videos on it and bought a book on it.
How do you find it time wise, compared to making a quilt the traditional way. I remember someone posting on here about it taking much longer. Is that true? Quilting individual blocks would certainly be a joy and I have thought about that. I always worried about the stability of the blocks at the joining points. That may be a baseless concern.

Bailey quilters are made in Leicester NY, about a half hour from me. Give Chuck Bailey a call at 585-382-3290. He's very knowledgeable and does not try to over-sell you.

Timewise, I think it works out about the same. However, once you have enjoyably quilted each block, then do the joinings, it seems amazing that you are done! Seems faster but it's probably not.

The blocks are just as stable. With the wide-join method, you insert a strip of batting in those wide sashings. To stabilize those, you need to make sure and quilt on the wide sashings once the blocks are all together. That isn't necessary with the narrow join method.

Here in the Dallas Metroplex you can use/rent the LongArms at Quilt Country (Lewisville) after taking an introductory course. I am booked in for September. It sounds brilliant. Is there anything like this near you?

The Babylock Jazz 2 has an 11 inch harp with great lighting underneath the harp. It also goes 1000 stitches per minute. It’s a really nice machine. It think it has a reasonable price tag.

Just looked at the Baileys at QuiltnNan’s recommendation... they certainly are reasonable and it looks like they even have some refurbished models at further savings!

I have a Nolting Quilting Bee - package includes table, bobbin winder etc @ what i felt to be a reasonable price that i could live with at this stage of my life. I bought it last October and am very happy with it. It’s a basic, sitdown machine - no stitch regulator, computers, and is for freemotion work only. It has a very simple, basic manual and i needed no formal lessons to learn to use it. I have been doing fmq for a long time so i know the drill!

Like others here, i finished many, many quilts for many years on everything from a Janome Jem to a Janome 6600 - tablerunners, wall quilts, baby quilts and up to queen size quilts! Knowing how much i love fmq and not wanting to give up my creations to others to finish i finally decided that it was the right decision for me to let my 6600 go back to being the wonderful sewing machine it was intended to be and ordered my Nolting.

We are fortunate to have many reasonable options available to finish quilts these days. There is no right or wrong way - it just needs to make you happy! It seems the older we get sometimes, the stronger the inclination to want to leave nothing unfinished behind.

To my thinking it really is a personal choice (as well as a budgetary one) as to whether you take your quilt to a trusted longarmer to do her magic, finish your “baby” yourself on your domestic machine, rent time on a longarm, or investigate purchasing a dedicated machine. The goal is getting those quilt tops finished as you see them in your “mind’s eye”. A job well done no matter what road you take to get there!

Please, please, don't take your life span into the equation. If you lived 1 week or 10 years after getting a machine that you would enjoy do it! I'll be 80 in a few short months, I bought the Brother Luminaire, I love every minute on it.
Go to sewing machine dealers, there are several Janome, Brother & Babylock machines that have 11 inch harps & are wonder for FMQ, no struggling with the bulk with can be very painful if you have arthritis, that I know.
Some with larger harps are the simpler models, you don't have to go to the top of the line ones. And since Brother & Babylock came out with new top of the line machines last fall there are bargains on traded in machines, a friend bought a used Brother Dream machine for under $2000, 11 inch harp, wonderful FMQ plus embroidery if you are interested in that.
But take your age out of it! No matter how old you are worth having something you would enjoy.

You just said it all, Maire!!!

Marie, that was a very kind and thoughtful post. You must be a very nice lady.
Thank you.

I bought both of my baileys on eBay and have loved them both. My first was a 13” and I used it for several years and sold it on Craigslist for $650 and bought a 22” Bailey on eBay for $900. Absolutely love it. It was hardly used. My husband built me a table so I use it as a sit down machine. I’ve already gotten my $900 worth out of it!!

I want to thank everyone for their input. I have been considering all of it. But the logical side of me took over and I decided to order a Juki TL 2010. It only has a 9" harp, but it is taller as well. I watched the other night a video that Leah Day put out about her new Juki when she bought it, and she talked about the neck strain of always having to scrunch down with her other machine
to see what she was doing, and the Juki was engineered to be very slim to the lelft and higher, to give you better visability for quilting.

I really don't plan on making any quilts bigger than perhaps a full size, so it should work out ok, and I am going to try that quilt as you go method also. I should probably buy that Marti Mitchell book everyone is mentioning.
Hopefully, I'll have no regrets.

I think you will be happy with your choice. I love my Juki 2010

I think you really pay for the speed control. Isn't there some way to control the speed by putting a small block of wood or pencil behind the foot pedal to stop it from going to fast. I thought I had read about it here a long time ago. Of course I can't find the post now.

I found this true4uca. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD4GQ43WvDE
I don't think the above hack looks too permanent. He even refers to it as "temporary".

But I already ordered the Juki. It wound up costing twice what I could get the Brother 1500 for. Juki has pulled 3 of the presser feet from the 2010Q. Apparantly, sales are too
good so they want to make you spend more. I had to add feet to my order which was an additional $150 more. I needed the walking foot guide bar $49.95, the 1/4" foot, and a ruler foot.

But just adding a speed control is not worth $ 500 more. I certainly won't argue with that.
They also have the Juki 2200QVP now going for $1,699, which is the identical machine to the 2010Q with a little fancier paint job, and all the added feet. That model could be had for as low as $1000 just over a year ago.

Congratulations! You'll love it. I bought a 9 inch harp machine 20 years ago, (Brother 1500) and FMQ many quilts on it, including queen size without any problems.
When I first got it a tip was shared with me that she was given by a Brother tech, to use stretch needles for FMQ, the longer grove for the thread helps prevent skipped stitches. The stretch needles made a huge difference. I don't know if this holds true for the Juki. I don't have one but have heard nothing but praise for Juki machines.