DottyD

Hi,
I see you are in Keller TX. This is the first time I have seen anyone on here from Keller. Is there anyone else ??
My DH and I are hoping to come and stay with friends, (who live just off Rufe Snow) in October. I have previously met up with a lovely group of ladies who are doing their Dear Jane quilt in Quilters Dream in Colleyville and hope to meet up with them again. I went with them last year to a quilt show in Fort Worth with Trinity Valley Quilters and if I am there in when they have a meeting, hope to go to Bear Creek Q Guild.
I have found several great shops, one in Plano, (can't remember the name) Met Becky at Old Town Quilts and went to Lone Star Quilts in Arlington. There were a few others as well.
Is there any where you would recommend?
Look forward to hearing from you.
DottyD in England UK.

mmonroe

Here is my list of "have to have's":

rotary stitch - by far, the best!
needle up/down
walking foot - own an old Pfaff 7130, and wouldn't even dream of quilting on anything but this oldie but goodie (fabric doesn't slip)
automatic needle threader
automatic thread cutter
quality blanket stitch to do applique

"nice to have's" -

embroidery module - I love embroidering the labels for the back of my quilts. I bought a Bernina Artista 730 and although I love it's embroidery stitch, I do spend a lot of time changing the machine over to the embroidery module. (I wish I had a separate machine just for embroidering!)

BSR - don't use as much as I thought I would.

Lots of utility stitches and pick a machine that is easy to switch between them.

Good luck, and please post with a pic of what you decide on, OK? :):)

ften662

i would buy huskvarna if i were going to buy. treasure chest in corinth,ms will be a dealer soon.

ften662

i have a baby lock and 2 brothers. have a lot of problems with them.

Traditional

Bernina was the first to bring the BSR to the market their focus was to make it possible for quilters to have a machine that was afforable.
Now other top of the line models with more features have the BSR .

maldonmum

I love my new Juki quilting machine. I also have Brother 600 for embroidery only. On good days I can operate both together .

Traditional

I just got a new computer with windows 7 and found my bernina editor lite v4 was not compatiable with windows 7 contacted Bernina and there is a patch that I was able to download (free) Hope you find this helpful.

vivoaks

Find a local dealer, and have them show you all the bells & whistles of any machine you might be interested in. BUY FROM THE LOCAL DEALER!! Around here, if you buy your machine from Ebay or somewhere else, it costs lots more to get work done on it than if you buy it from the dealer. I personally think most all machines have their good points and bad points. It's up to you to decide what your priorities are, and go from there.

lsmft

Yesterday I bought a Brother Laura Ashley for $1900 (including tax). That was after looking at the Pfaff Expressions 4.0 and Janome Horizon. It will take 5 days for delivery so I can't reliably comment, but the machine seems awesome to me for the money. Beware of purchasing a machine with the promise of full value trade-in within a year. The trade-in is good against the manufacturer's retail price - not the selling or sale price. I have an 8 month old Janome that I wanted to trade in for a Horizon. With the $650 trade-in against the manufacturer's retail price it came to about the same as if I kept the Janome and purchased the Horizon at sale price. Not happy about that gimmick! Good luck -- hope you get something you love.

gypsylady5

Me TOO! Love my Viking 500 and would buy another in a heartbeat if I had the money. Want an embroidery machine as well. Sold mine by mistake and now I miss it!