Sewing machine question
 

I have been quilting for several years and am currently using a Brother Project Runway machine. I am thinking about upgrading and want to learn free motion quilting. What are your favorite domestic sewing machine for general piecing and free motion? I am not interested in a long arm machine.

Thanks so much for any suggestions.

You will get raves for every brand! You need to decide what features are important to you and what you are willing to spend. Try out various machines at local shops and find the one that fits you the best. Personally I have the Bernina 830 which has a big harp and does embroidery. It is not a machine for everyone though.

Do you like your Brother? If so there are many Brother owners here that I'm sure will have excellent recommendations for you. I have a Babylock Unity which I absolutely love, it does embroidery as well as piecing and free motion. My smaller machine is a Babylock Elizabeth which is great for piecing and free motion quilting. Love, love, love my Babies!

Love my Juki TL2010q, only does straight stitching but is a very reliable, powerful workhorse!

I think most new machines have some common features such as feed dogs down, and needle down functions. For free motion quilting I'd be looking for features such as how much room is in the throat of the machine. How big is the sewing platform. How good is the lighting. Can the presser foot be raised or lowered by using the foot pedal. Does it have a special foot for free motion.

You might try free motion quilting on the machine you now have. Decide what you like/dislike about sewing on that machine and what features you wish it had.

My mother always told me that you should buy from your local dealer. I have a BabyLock Espire, which is now known as Symphony. But if you have a Bernina dealer, or Janome, Elna or any of the other major brands in your area check with them. You want to have someone who is knowledgeable and close by. Don't know about you, but I would not want to travel too far to get to my dealer. Besides, we (my mother and I) have dealt with these people for nearly 40 years. You don't have to pay megabucks to get a good machine, but there are a lot of variables that you much consider. Talk with certified sewing machine shop and they will definitely help you out.

Bernina machines will take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. You can quilt for a loooooong time and not burn it up. It delivers a beautiful stitch. Save up for a used one if a new machine isn't in the budget.

I guess what helped me make up my mind was the Bernina Stitch Regulator. Really helped with my free motion quilting. I love my Bernina!!!

I love my old Bernina 1530 too. You just really need to go to a quilt show that will have many local dealers with a large selections of DSM. You just need to test drive them all to see what works for you. Take notes on which machine has what option and price. Just like test driving a new or used car. Have Fun !!

I love my Bernina 820. It is thousands of dollars cheaper than the 830, because it does not have the embroidery capability. It was fine for me, as I had another one for that. I use it on my frame, but really like to free motion without the frame, also.

When I started quilting I owned a Pfaff expression 2.0 which I like, but didn't feel I could do as good a job of FMQ as I would like to. I purchased a Brother pq1500s that is straight stitch only but it does FMQ like a dream and is reasonably priced.

If you like your brother why not get the straight stitch PQ1500S and keep your other machine for the various other stitches. The PQ is good for piecing and quilting and has a decent harp without getting to fancy. If you have a big budget to me nothing comes close to the v-series brother machines and how they perform

The juki tl2010q, Brother PQ 1500s, and the Babylock Jane are all basically the same machine (although it sounds like the juki has a couple nice features that my Jane doesn't ). They are mechanical straight stitch only machines. The stitches are beautiful. I can't emphasize enough how much difference my Jane made to my FMQ. Right out of the box I saw massive improvement. Very rarely do I have to play with tension. No thread breaks. If my quilting looks like crap now, I only have myself to blame! You should be able to get any of these machines for about a $1000. I paid about $800 for my Jane in November. Keep your Brother for when you want to zig zag, blanket stitch, or other decorative stitch. Good luck and have fun shopping.

I have 7 machines so I've gone through this many times. Here are my suggestions 1. You should buy any machine only after fully testing it at the store. I would suggest you take your own scrap material and thread you usually use for this test 2. Only buy a machine from a dealer you like and trust and that you can visit by a reasonable drive. Things may happen even to a new machine 3. Be very clear what you want...throat size, type of stitches, and your main purpose for the machine ( I have a Janome with 11 inch throat for just free motion) 4. Don't just pay the price on the machine, negotiate. If they won't reduce the price, ask for accessory feet, thread or even small cabinet. 5. Do research on-line before you visit any dealer. You might even consider see if there is a Yahoo Group for the machine and see what owners are saying about the machine.
Two times I didn't do the able and one machine just doesn't work for me. It is a very noisy machine and I know that seems petty, but it drives me crazy and I don't use it. The other machine seemed fine but I had serious tension problems but the dealer finally discovered it had a damaged tension disk from the original shipping.
Since I attend many quilters "open sews" I now know I should have looked at the Juki machine for free motion. It is only a straight stitch but has a large throat and a great stitch.
Do your homework and you will LOVE your new machine. Good Luck..Let us know what you get

Consider a good used machine....I went to a janome dealer and bought a used 6600 for $1000....it included 3 different accufeed feet, unlimited free classes on the machine, unlimited free quilting classes given at the shop, plus a 10% coupon for total purchase (1 day)....the machine is great and the dealer has opened a satellite shop just a few miles from me ;) ...just doesn't get any better!

The most important thing is the repore between you and your dealer/service tech. You need to like and trust these people or you will get no where. Trust me....I have been down this road before. Sally J said it all very nicely. I agree 110% Good Luck, and have fun!!!

If you are happy with your Project Runway machine for piecing, have you thought about getting one of the sit-down FM machines like the HQ Sweet 16? I have a Sunshine 16 from Pennywinkle Valley Ranch (www.sunshine16.com). All of them work basically the same, and some have more bells and whistles than others.

I'm in the Brother 1500 club, too. Great machine. I bought mine off AllBrands for around $700 a couple of years ago. The throat space is wonderful.

I use to have a Brother, which pieces quilt tops just fine, but when it came to sandwiches or quilting through multiple layers, it had troubles - the stitching was inconsistent even with a walking foot (which was cumbersome to put on and take off). I was so frustrated and in tears and quite frankly hating my new hobby, so my quilting instructor let me use the store's Pfaff and I could not believe the difference. PFAFF HAS A BUILT-IN WALKING FOOT (easy to engage) and as such, I can also use the 1/4" Quilting Foot at the same time. sews through multiple layers easily and without hesitation - beautiful, even stitches. My new hobby is now FUN. I highly recommend to those who will be quilting to look at and try out Pfaff sewing machines. I have a Pfaff Ambition that I take to classes and just recently I purchased the Pfaff Performance 5.0 (bigger throat space, monogramming, built in stippling, able to design my own stitches).

For quilting the most important thing I was looking for in a machine was the harp space so concentrated on those machines with 10-11" harp area. I got a Janome 8900qcp and have been very pleased with it. I will never use all the stitches that it has but that was part of the package.

I have a Janome 8900 and have used it to FMQ. Love it!

I was seriously considering purchasing a Brother (mainly because that's within my budget) but your comments about sandwiching has me concerned. Sandwiching is my least favorite part of quilting, and I have enough issues with that process without having to worry about the machine.

I have a Janome 6600P. It's a great machine with a very nice stitch and a larger throat (harp- the space to the riht of the needle). I like that it has the built in walking foot and does a very nice FMQing stitch.

If I were to buy a second machine I would get a Juki 2010 to start a little collection going.

I also have an older Elna 6300, but that's at my Moms house indefinitely for her to use. She wanted to "buy" it from me, but I decided an indefinte loan is better. I can't take money from my Mom...

My sewing machine repairman said that Brother and Baby Lock are the best machines being made today. So I have two Brothers, one Pfaff (7570), one older New Home, a Viking 1100 (on permanent loan to a friend), and a 1954 Featherweight. Incidentally I teach sewing and quilting in my home.

When I was looking for a new (or newer), machine I had the same questions you do. I found that I made up quilt blocks (cut out the pieces for a simple block or mug rug batting and backing), placed it into a zip lock bag. I made 12 of these bags up, then placed a large recipe card into each bag and all bags went into my car. When I went to a dealer (we have a number in my area), to look at a machine I would take a bag or two into the dealers with me. They show you all kinds of things, but you need to do some sewing your self. I would sew a block together, then make my notes on the enclosed card. If I used a second machine in the shop I would do it all over again. I also had a couple of finished blocks with me that I would try free motion quilting on, I would also make notes on a card also. This gave me things to look at and reread my notes when I was away from the sales people. With the price of machines any dealer that doesn't want you to make a block, doesn't want to sell a machine. I have found that the dealers I went to, thought it was a good idea (and I was asked back to teach a tween sewing class). Just something you might want to try. Good luck.

Free motion on a domestic machine without stitch regulator takes loads of practice. Many, many quilters out there do beautiful work with free motion. I own Brothers and now a basic Bernina 153 Virtuosa. I would probably trade them all for one Bernina with the a stitch regulator. There may be others out there with stitch regulators, domestic sewing machines I mean, but I'm not aware of any. So for free motion and all other general sewing (not embroidery) I would go with that. You of course should try out as many as possible and find what suits your needs. As Nammie to 7 says, you will get raves about every brand! I recommend you try free motion with, and without, the stitch regulator at your local dealer.

Whatever you decide, make sure you get some type of instructional classes, support FREE, no extra charge!!!!

My hubby just bought me a BabyLock Crescendo for my birthday. It has an 11.25 inch harp so it is great for FMQing. It has auto threading, thread cutter and needle up/needle down. It also has a laser guideline that you can set to your seam width and follow for perfect seams. I just got it less than a week ago, but I know I'm going to love it.

I had a sweet Bernina 1090 that I had bought used. THEN my friend dragged me down to the Bernina dealer to see the new 440 with the stitch regulator. That is the only thing the induced me to part with my 1090. I don't fear FMQ when I have the stitch regulator to keep it looking nice. I've had my 440 for 8 years now and no regrets. It is a wonderful machine that has never let me down.

Love my Juki 2010! I also have a Babylock Melody but I use my Juki more!

Wait wait wait wait...

Is it the kind of stitch regulation with the sort of mousey thing? I don't like that kind.

I'm a huge lover of Janome, but if Bernina has good stitch regulation on a nice, big DSM I am willing to open my heart to another!! :D

So far I've only used vintage machines for any machine quilting I've done, which is very little, mostly wall hangings and lap quilts. Amazingly enough, my featherweight has almost the same throat space as many of the new plastic wonders! Some of my other 'oldies but goodies' have larger capacity. If I decide to invest in a larger machine at some point I will definitely do major test driving before purchasing.

I have a Laura Ashley, In-novis, NX-2000 by Brother. It was built for quilter's, comes with everything you need, 17 feet (including the walking foot) and is a dream to sew with! Very quiet until it needs cleaning. I did all the quilting on the quilt I made for my daughter which is in the picture section. She wanted it in Mauves & Blues. It did an amazing job on both sides!! Love it!

I have two Juki's--the TL2010q and the F600. The former I bought new about a year ago and the latter I bought used about three months ago. I absolutely love both of them. The 2010 is amazing for FMQ and it's a sturdy machine too--not a plastic machine. I think the Brother 1500 is basically the same machine as the Juki 2010q and goes for slightly cheaper.

I agree these machines are all great for anything us quilters can ask them to do and lots of metal parts inside-made to last.I dropped my babylock-a bad accident and broke it.It was gonna be pricey to fix so I just got the Juki2010 and love it .

love your Brother....look at Brother. I stay with the brand that I love. Got 4 of them!

sandy