Dreamt of machines last night...
 

Yesterday a few ladies from my quilt guild went to the Birmingham Sewing & Quilt Expo. It was a small event but I really enjoyed looking at all the gadgets that you normally only get to see online... and I got to sit on that gypsy quilter purple sit upon thing. It was very interesting... still not sure if I like it but I can see how it would make sitting for a long period of time much much more comfortable...

Anyhoooo...
I really went to look at sit down quilting machines. I already had a frame set up and it is a space hog. I don't want a stand up machine. I like to sit down when I quilt and the floor space the frame takes up is something I don't want to part with...

Sadly I wasn't able to try out all the machines I wanted to before buying my machine. The only sit downs there were the Juki 2000 which I have to admit stitches really, really nicely. If I had an extra $900 to blow, I'd get it just for piecing. It stitched better than my Janome 4900qc... I might sell my Brother 4500d machine and get that and a Janome 350e embroidery machine... it would be like getting 2 machines for one lol.

The Tin Lizzie dealer didn't have any sit downs to show off. The guy said that he was hoping to get it in for the Georgia expo next month.
A HQ dealer was there and I did get to play with the Sweet 16. It was sweeeeet. I have to admit that. However, it was a pressure sale. You had to buy it before the end of the show to get the discount. That irritated me to no end. I don't like having to make a decision like that so quickly so I walked away.

So last night I went to bed thinking about machines and I woke up far too early, thinking about machines, and all morning long I've been doing research online about machines....
Next weekend I think I'm going to drive out to Waverly, TN and see the Sunshine 16 machine. It will be a day trip for me but I'm curious to see what does $2000 get you compared to the hq sweet 16....

good luck on your search!

Have fun searching. Let us know what you think.

It's nice to know that someone else dreams quilting. Once I had a quilt that I couldn't decide how to quilt. I would spend the night quilting in my dreams. lol I finally sent the quilt to a local long arm quilter and it was perfect. It was a gift for one of my DGD's expected baby and I wanted it perfect. I spent several nights fretting about how to quilt it. Crazy, I know.
Sue

its not crazy at all i come up with some of my best ideas dreaming of quilting. alot of times ill come up with border ideas or patterns for a quilt while dreaming. my hubby thinks its silly but he cant deny the results. now if i could just solve the rest of my life issues that way id be in great shape.
carla

Never having heard of this, I googled "gypsy quilter purple sit upon thing" and darn if I didn't get a good picture of it! Thank you and google for making it easy to learn something new!:D

Best of luck with your upcoming purchase!

Jan in VA

I haven't dreamt about machines (got enough!), but I have woke up in the middle of the night thinking about a quilt I would be working on and couldn't get back to sleep, so got up and worked on it

Sure wish I could tag along, but am looking forward to hearing all about it. :-)

I ended up going with the Tin Lizzie for a few different reasons... I felt the table had a lot less vibration.. and I liked that it wasn't dependent on an electronic screen.. and I liked the orientation of the machine itself. At the show yesterday I was by the Babylock Tiara (identical to the HQ S16) and the bobbin got goobered up. No biggie until she needed to raise the handwheel. She had someone standing on the back of the machine to do it. Yeah, not so convenient if you have to get up, go around to the back of the machine and raise the handwheel then go back to the front to fix it.
The HQ/Tiara also needs a table overlay to use the stitch regulator or do ruler work. The table design is flawed. It is not flush with the needle plate so they made an overlay to go on top of it (msrp $99) to fix the issue. I think they just need to fix the table or give you the overlay... there is a promotion going on with Babylock maybe with HQ as well for the overlay but the HQ dealer there didn't know anything about an overlay. She had never heard of it.

I felt they both machines stitched nicely. The HQ was a little quieter than the Lizzie. Both machines can be converted to be used on a frame. The dealer assured me that the sit down can be converted to frame use but I doubt I would ever use it on a frame. I just didn't like the space a frame took up which is why I'm going with a sit down anyway.

Yay! I'm so excited! The Juki is just waiting for me to start piecing on her. I wish I didn't sleep so terribly. I think today I'd sew my finger in to my project. I'll be busy rearranging furniture and assembling furniture and cleaning up the room so my day will be spent wisely :D