Hi,
What automatic features of a sewing machine do you find most useful when piecing and quilting, auto tie off, auto thread scissors, etc? This will help me decide which machine to purchase, since I cannot afford one with ALL the bells and whistles. Thank you,
Jack

Great question - that will help me also. Right now - the #1 priority for me is a machine that will have the "up/down" needle option.

Cindy

The machines I am looking at either have the auto cut, or the auto tie off, but not both. So thought 'What other of the features do others use the most and find the most useful?' All opinions are appreciated, as this will help me make up my mind when I go check out the machines Monday.
Jack

Needle up/down, automatic thread cutter, several needle positions, 1/4" presser foot, add'l. face plate with that one little hole in it so the macine doesn't eat your fabric. The face plate on my machine closes up that hole to make it a little one automatically when I tell it that I'm going to do a straight stitch. I love that feature. I have a Janome

Yep. And I love my knee bar to raise and lower the presser foot.

I have a Brother Nouvelle 1500S that I just bought about a month ago for strictly straight stitching for quilting but I've found that this machine is great for piecing too. This is not a computerized machine (which I didn't want because I have 2 other ones that are) but I don't miss any of the "modern" bells and whistles like the up/down needle or auto thread cutter on my other machines. What I really love is the fabric guide attachment. My 1/4" seams are so much better than they use to be. Whatever machine you decide on, be sure to get one of these attachments :) Such a simple thing really but it makes sewing those 1/4" seams less stressful.

Needle up/down, the auto thread cutter is not as important to me as the auto tie off feature.
I also wanted a variety of decorative stitches for machine applique and for other decorative uses.
A good walking foot available or a built in one.
Needle threader that works easily.

I like most of the features already mentioned, but my favorite is the needle threader on my Bernina 440QE

Amma what machine do you have?

1/4" foot, straight-stitch plate (narrow hole so your needle must be in straight stitch position), extended throat plate so you can get more material to the right of the needle (on a Bernina it's the Patchwork Edition (PE) version), adjustable speed while using the foot pedal.

Sunday nite I'll have to print this whole post and highlight everything and then check when I am sitting in front of the machines instead of trying to remember everything. Some of the things mentioned are greek to me :-)

Call me old fashioned but I love the good old knee control for speed. Too bad they do not make these anymore. I guess when the companies got away from putting machines into the cabinets whenthey sold them , that is when they dropped the knee speed control. And by the way I also miss buying the cabinet with the machine.
New options are :more in the feet , Free motion, 1/4 inch, walkingfoot, open toe applique, piping, cording, you just can not have enough feet.
A cabinet ( so the machine base is recessed) with a really nice big surface area around it would be a great. I would accept less options on a machine to get a great base cabinet. I would forgo a needle up or down for a great cabinet( but most machines have this as a standard unless a really inexpensive machine) . The surface area you have is so important. After that the biggest opening for rolling up quilts to do the quilting.

As long as the needle thread catches the bobbin thread with no big loops or tight pulls I'm good to go. All those other things are nice but they don't really matter. I love sewing on my vintage Singer and all it does is forward and reverse. If there's a problem I can usually fix it. The other day the set screw in the small belt wheel broke and fell out. A small piece of wooden skewer later and I was stitchin' up a storm!

Hehe you sound like me :)
Yes fancy stitches are pretty and all the bells and whistles look nice but when it comes down to it, I'll take a simple machine that does a gorgeous straight stitch over the bells and whistles any day. :)

I love the walking foot on my Pfaff.

Oh, I have some with a few bells and whistles and I use them too, but there's just something soothing about the sound a vintage machine makes.

On the older Pfaff I love the IDT (walking foot), needle up/down, change in needle position, the low bobbin indicator, and the stitch-in-the-ditch foot.

On the BabyLock I love the tie off feature, needle up/down, huge display, awesome stitches (cleaner stitch than the Pfaff), drop-in bobbin, separate bobbin winding motor. Thread cutter is nice but I still use scissors a lot.

I'm a pretty simple girl. I like a machine I can sit down at and sew right away without having to read a manual. The only "fancy" features I really appreciate are the needle threader (but as long as I can still see to thread a needle this isn't a big deal) and the ability to have the machine stop with the needle in the down position (again, another convenience feature as I can certainly turn the wheel to lower the needle.)

Remember, the more expensive the machine, the more complicated it will be to operate.

Perfect stitch, perfect bobbin winding tension, and most important a good user manual. The new machine manuals are almost useless. Most will tell you what to do but not how to do it.

Mad quilter; a cleaner stitch than a pfaff? Could you explain what to look for please? Not really sure what you mean, so not sure what to look for.
Thank you,
Jack

retired2pa; a fabric guide, is that different than the 1/4" pressor foot? I've noticed lines with measurements on the face plates below the pressor foot, is that what you are speaking of?
Thank you,
Jack

I miss the knee control too. I still have my mother's old White machine in the cabinet. I don't use it currently but I was taught how to sew on this machine and which the knee control would come back. I also like the wide area that you had for sewing. I made many drapes for my house using that machine.

Thanks for the drive down memory lane. :wink:

For me, the most important feature is a bright light.

Would hate to live without my needle threader. I also have a Clover needle threader for my hand quilting needles. Great time savers.

My favorite thing is a foot...my walking foot. I use it almost all the time and think I'd like to have a built-in walking foot (on my Bernina it's not built in).

I also miss the knee pedal. Like crafter005 I also learned on my mother's White (1947 vintage) with the knee control. I've had trouble learning to use the free hand system knee thing on my Bernina because I just revert back to moving my knee to make it go!!

I tried a few of the fancy stitches and compared them. The Pfaff does a pretty good job on the button-hole (or blanket) stitch, for example, but some of the stitches were off. Not exactly skipped, but looser than the others. My older Brother used to skip stitches, so I know the difference. The Babylock keeps the stitches more consistent.

OMG - how could I forget the needle threader. The Babylock Espire has one of those "push one button and the needle is threaded" features. It's all still new to me but I lOVE it.

I personally love the lock stitch as well as the needle up/down feature. Anything else beyond that is just gravy :D

When I'm paper piecing, I love the thread cutter best.

needle down/up, drop feed dogs/free motioncapability, walking foot, blanket stitch

The auto thread cutter is a favorite feature for me.

For the machine I piece with, I couldn't live without the needle up/down feature - and also the 1/4 inch foot and the walking foot.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the IDT on the pfaff the same as the feed foot on a janome? Anyone prefer one over the other? And does the IDT handle quilting thick quilts the same as the feed foot? And is the lock stitch the same as Auto tie off?
Sorry for all the dumb questions, but a newbie here :mrgreen:

I hate unscrewing and rescrewing the different feet used. I love my Bernina, just lift the lever remove foot, pull down lever and that is all. Needle up/down, knee lift are also wonderful.

Hi, I use the janome 6600P. It has the auto thread cutter, and the up or down positioning for the needle,. which I love both options..it has the option of a second higher position for the foot, giving alot more room to move the quilt layers through, without snagging anything, which is wonderful for quilting. Also, the the accu feed foot...it moves all 3 layers together, at the same time, while quilting. I have made a few quilts since buying this machine, and I am a new quilter. The back is as pretty as the front, no puckers, no folds, nothing. It also has the double needle option, for topstitching, which is a must, for me.

I have a Pfaff and my two favorite features are the duel feed and the needle down. I use both everytime I sew.

Needle up and down, auto cut and I really like the feature where you don't have to use a foot pedal just On/Off for free motion.

I like it when I change stitches on my Bernina patchwork,it will go back to the regular straight stitch automatically after you shut it off and turn it back on again.Also I love the needle up/down feature.I really just love everything about it except the location of the on /off button.It is not where you can access it easy and sometimes I actually have to stand up and look for it to turn it off or on.But,that is me.

Auto thread cutter. Don't know how i lived without it!

check out the Janome brand. Their machines come with many options. I like the threader feature on my machine, because I have old eyes.

from inexpensive to next price point I like the needle up/down feature and speed control

I think the next feature is on the higher end could be wrong, BUT I love the auto cut thread button

then there is the auto thread, nice but not a have to have

I have an Elna 7200 which is very similar to a Janome MC6500. I also have a Singer Quantum Futura CE-200. Both have the needle threader qizmo but it only works well with certain sizes of needles--smaller on the Singer--larger on the Elna so that feature isn't as important to me as the auto thread cutter--especially for paper piecing. All those thread tails will drive you crazy if you don't snip them right away!

The needle up/down is useful while sewing long strips together. It acts as a 3rd hand, holding your pieces while you line everything up and keep lining it up all the way down the seam especially if you hate pinning as much as I do.

Dropping the feed dogs is a must if you plan to free motion quilt. My Elna was purchased for frame quilting so that feature was a must.

The straight stitch plate is nice if you've been having trouble with things getting sucked down the hole but it's not a deal breaker for me. I only put mine on when I'm having trouble. My needle has to be adjusted over a smidge to use it or the thread rubs on it and breaks which is more annoying than occasionally trying to eat the corners on triangles. Leaders & enders help with that problem as well as a straight stitch plate.

My Elna also has the knee lifter which I rarely use. I realize it would be easier for some things but I just never got in the habit of using it. I learned to sew on a machine that had the knee speed control so now it's stuck in my head that that's what the bar is for and it just ends up p!ssing me off when I try to use it properly--LOL!

I wouldn't worry too much about the feet unless you buy some odd machine that needs special feet. Many take the generic snap on feet which can be purchased very reasonably. I can't be without my 1/4 inch foot but it's a snap on so if my original one disappears--it's easily replaceable. Same goes for the walking foot and free motion/darning foot although they aren't "snap-on". They are still fairly generic and work on many machines.

So, I guess auto thread cutter and dropping the feed dogs are my 2 must haves but it depends on whether I have a backup machine also that can do zig-zags or other fancy stitches. If you can only get one machine--spend a little more and get one that can multi-task.