DawnFurlong

I'm considering buying this machine. I really liked how it stitched, the IDT, so many things! Just a joy to sew on.

That said, I'm starting to sew in addition to quilting. There are many instances if I stopped in the middle of a seam while working on a garment, I would not want the presser foot to lift up. Is there a way to disable that feature? Does anyone have this machine (or similar) and use it for both quilting and sewing?

My primary machine is an Elna 740 Excellence. I've generally been satisfied with this machine for quilting, though currently fabric pulls to the left causing frustration as a person learning to sew with different fabrics. I need to have it serviced. But I had been thinking that maybe I need a separate machine set up for sewing. Hence wandering into a local sewing center. Sewing on the Pfaff made me think about moving from my Elna and just sticking with one machine for both sewing and quilting. Except for the auto lift on the presser foot. And the fact that I seemed to be able to FMQ on the floor model with the feed dog left or right (the feed dogs didn't appear to drop).

Then I'm wondering if it is too much to expect one machine to excel at both quilting (including FMQ) and sewing?

Much evaluating to do!

eparys

Most of these Pfaff machines have a needle down position. I have a Pfaff Creative 2.0 and use the needle down position all the time. The presser foot comes up slightly but the needle stays inserted through the fabric in the down position in the last stitch. Since I have a longarm I have never done FMQ on my machine so maybe someone else can address that portion of you question.

I love my Pfaff for the IDT - I wouldn't sew without it!

Ginaky

I have the QE 4.0. If you do not have the needle down selected, it will stop with the needle up and the foot down. There is also a foot to use for free motion quilting. In the manual on page 2.9 there are instructions to lower the feed dogs--slide the button on the lower front of the machine to the left. I love this machine and use it every day for sewing, piecing, etc. I'm not good at free motion quilting and have a mid-arm quilting machine so I don't use it for that. I do love the IDT on the Pfaff machines.

suern3

I have the Pfaff 4.2. It is the only machine I use, sewing, piecing, FMQ. The feed dogs do drop for FMQ. There is a manual switch on the front of the machine. There are three settings, using different feet for FMQ. I have my machine set to automatically slightly raise the presser when I stop, leaves the needle down in the fabric. Most of the time I need to adjust the fabric when I stop, so I love it. If I don't need to adjust fabric, it doesn't matter because the needle is down so nothing moves if you don't want it to. I believe that you can change that setting but I would have to look for sure and I can't do that right now.

GEMRM

I have the Elna 740 Excellence and wouldn't trade it!