I had won years ago a gift from my husband gave it away not that impressed would rather have a quilting machine

I have an older Singer that I have used regularly for a long time. I really like it. Just expect to spend some time going over the manual and try to understand it all. There are many different things you can do with it. Nancy Zieman has recently has several shows on this. A lot of decorative work can be accomplished with a Serger with a few changes to the settings. A little patience is a plus.

I've never had one either. I'd kinda like to get one. But, I have my eyes on the bigger prize. A longarm!!

I'm sure many of you know this little tip on threading. Instead of pulling the old thread out to rethread with the new, cut the thread of each spool at the spool, remove the old spools, put in new spools, and tie the old and new threads together with a knot. Run the machine until the new thread has fed through a few inches. Voila, threaded! Learned this from a friend AFTER driving myself nuts and renaming my machine #&&??//%%%.

I love my serger. I sew lots of things besides quilts and would not be without it!

Lately my serger has done more cutting than sewing. I do alterations and have cut off miles of tulle from prom gowns that need hemming! Nice clean straight edges. I have the Nancy's Notions serger because I also got it stuck in my head that I wanted to have a serger and that was all I could afford at the time. But after having sewed on much more expensive (and easy to thread) BabyLocks where I worked, it was very frustrating to thread and adjust tensions. Still, if you do much sewing besides quilting there are many uses for it. It is great for home decorating projects and making rolled or overcast hems.

I have had a Singer serger for about 20 years. I have used it a lot. I especially like it to serge the edges of quilts after they are quilted. I use a four thread overlock stitch. By doing so, the edges are automatically trimmed, compressed and stitched together resulting in a nice, even edge. Our guild makes twin sized quilts for wounded soldiers. I have, as of yesterday, quilted 211 of these quilts on my longarm and have serged the edges. The quild ladies that sew the binding always tell me how they love the serged edges. I have also made boo-coodles of pillowcases. The serged seams make a wonderful finished seam.

Me too! :D

I bought a Babylock serger some years ago, and I absolutely love it because it does have the jet air threading. So simple and fast! Mine is an 8-thread and I opted for one with the coverlock stitch because it finishes the edges of tee shirts, etc. so professionally. I have never regretted paying for a more expensive machine up front because I did not want to have to go through the pain of threading one. I don't use it everyday, that's for sure, but I know it's there if I need it for a particular project. Never thought of using it to bind the edge of fabric before washing to prevent ravelling. Great idea! I can see where I am going to be using it a lot more! I also use mine when bath towels get too old to use; I cut them up, bind the edges with my serger, and use them for dish rags.

I have a "dinosaur" serger that still works very well, but threading it is a challenge - especially that lower looper. (I know about the tying the new thread to the one already in the machine and then pulling it through, but I haven't been successful) So I would recommend getting one that has the automatic threading feature. I've only seen them demonstrated, but it seems that the thread is "just sucked up into that machine" and before you know it, there's only the task of putting the thread though the hole in the needle

BTW, I've used the serger to make Kaye Wood's six-hour quilt.