New Machine!!
 

I've posted on here a couple of times about some problems I was having with my Brother Dreamweaver. The people I bought it from were useless, and some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

Brother was helpful but we still weren't able to solve my problems, and I was getting more and more frustrated - bobbin sensor wasn't working, when I was doing FMQ it would constantly get "stuck", thread was shredding no matter what I did, it was driving me bonkers.

I had been having these problems for almost a year, and the problems were starting to get worse. The fabric wasn't feeding properly through the machine, and it wouldn't sew over seams without me having to "tug" it through.

I told Brother in an email that I wanted another certified technician to look at my machine. I drove an hour away, explained everything to him and he started to laugh ... AH yes, you're one of "those" ... I must admit, my eyebrows went up about 6 inches. Before I had a chance to explain he says: "this is how your sales went ... you went in to the store told them what you wanted, and they showed you this machine. They told you that no matter how much sewing you did, this machine could handle it."

I agreed, and told him that I sew anywhere from 2-3 hours a day, and in the winter much more, and longer on the weekends.

He basically told me I had killed my machine. For the amount of sewing that you do (and most of it is FMQ), you should have bought a lower version and a long arm.

I was ticked (Ok, I was more than that LOL) .. to make a long story short, he replaced the feed dog unit on my machine (at their cost) I did have to pay for labour, and I paid for him to do a full / thorough maintenance / cleaning on my machine.

And since I wasn't about to stop quilting, and I can't afford to replace the feed dog unit every 2 years, I went out and bought the husqvarna platinum Q160

Setting this up was not fun LOL but I finally got it up and running ... and then I did some sewing and oh boy ... I feel like I am learning all over again!

I was so good at FMQ on my machine hahahahaha ... I can still do it, but I don't have all the bells and whistles (cutter, threader, etc) so the cheating and short cuts I did on my brother can't be done on this one. And it sews much faster!!!

Lots of practice coming up over the winter!

Oh how wonderful!! You're going to have a lot of fun with your new toy :)

Congrats! Looks like that's got Handi Quilter's new Insight table as well (will the built-in stitch regulation). (The Platinum is a rebadged HQ Sweet Sixteen so you can look to those groups for lots of info https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png )

Congratulations and enjoy your new machine. It is always fun to learn on a new machine and hopefully it will be nicer to you than the other machine.

Four of my sew group have the Dreamweaver. Two that do the embroidery quilting a lot have nothing but problems when they try to sew. They are less then a year old and already been in shop for problems. The other two don't sew or embroidery as much and their machines are fine. All four decided to trade in the machines for a lower tech model hoping not to lose too much of what they paid.

Congrats and enjoy!

Thanks all! Yes, it is the HandiQuilter technology ...

OnebyOne - your friends need to keep complaining to brother ... I drove them bonkers until I got what I wanted, and I'm glad I did ... (well, I'm not glad I forked out a ton of money for a new machine LOL) ... but at least I got the part replaced for free

I'm so glad that you have resolved your issues so successfully, oh the fun you and your new machine will have.

Isn't wonderful to have a repair person you can trust/connect on? My car repairman was a great guy. I have a great sewing machine guy now that is not the rep for my brand -- but that's ok, it's not on warranty and he can deal with it just fine and tell me the truth and still appreciate my vintage machine too.

We deserve quality tools. I'm looking at it now as that I spend more time with my sewing machine now than with my car which in addition to acquisition cost requires maintenance and repairs as well as gas, plus taxes and insurance. A long arm is really looking cheap to me in those terms, especially when I would definitely spend more time with my machine than my car...

Sorry about your brothers machine. An unfortunate lesson to have to learn. I am thrilled about your new machine. Once you learn all the bells and whistles you will be on your way to FMQ heaven!

Congratulations on your new machine. May you enjoy many happy hours of perfect stitches!

We should not be frustrated with our machines.

I looked up the details on your machine, and it looks very nice! Did you get the TruStitch option on your machine? And if you did, do you like it?

A good and honest repair person is worth so much! I'm glad you found one who would tell you the honest truth about what you really need.

A good and honest repair person is worth so much!

Yes they are! So is a dealer you can trust. It seems sewing machine dealers are getting the reputation of old time car salesmen. The best dealer I have ever known never steered anyone to the higher price machines, always what you needed for what you did and never put down anyone that brought in a Walmart machine to see what was wrong with it. She treated the owner like it was the top of the line purchase. She retired quiet wealthy from her shop and it sold in record time because of the profits. The new owners went bankrupt in three years. Sad.

Wow, congratulations! I have to admit I’ve never heard of killing a machine. That’s terrible that you had to put up with all of that.

I took a machine quilting class with a well known machine quilting teacher. She said the worse thing you could do with a high end machine was use the stipple stitch to machine quilt a quilt. It will kill a new machine in no time. She said that stitch should never have been on a sewing machine. Just FYI from a class.

Wow, I'm with Doggramma, I have never heard of killing a machine either. Did he say how long you were meant to sew on it before it croaked? A good repairman is so vital. I'm sure you will love your new machine. I love Juki but hate the local shop. So no more Juki's in my future. What's strange to me is there is no place to send a machine other than the local dealers. Sounds like Brother is the same. Enjoy your new set up.

I know with many machines especially the more expensive ones, they will have a stitch counter in them. If you look closely at the warranty, it will state something like " for home use only" As industrial machines meant for business, usually are built out of more long lasting metal parts, I have worn out one of the plastic parts on my viking D1, that I was replaced but not covered under the warranty because I just stitched it right down. My repair man told me that if the stitch count is really high, he will question the owner if they had been using the machine in a business.....A lot of the cheaper machines, are just meant to be replaced when they go down it seems.

Pretty sure I did about 10 large quilts with the stipple stitch LOL ...

Good for you. Looks like a real beauty!

Happy to hear you got it resolved...and look, a new addition to your sewing room. Congratulations, new machines are so much fun to discover. Enjoy.

That is the main reason I only quilt with one of my two straight stitch only machines. I have quilted several hundred quilts on them in the 10 years I have had them. They still are not dead.

Seems the fancy machines are not reliable and can't take the work load.

Marion, your machine looks great.

Congratulations on your new machine. Sounds like you'll be having fun no matter the weather or Covid this winter. Enjoy and have fun.👍

Looks like you are on your way. The Machine looks wonderful. congrats to you and happy FMQ.

I have had my machine 8 years with not a single issue. I love my dreamy. Service it once a year sews like butter. I sew and quilt mostly with occassionally doing embroidery.

Out of curiousity how much quilting do you do? I sew 2-3 hours a day, and when I do FMQ, it's hardcore LOL lots of stippling, etc. that's how mine died!

I asked the dealer what is meant when someone said you killed the machine. She said that's what her repairman says when the motor is burned up, too much strain on the motor.