Damsel in DisDress

I did all my FMQ on a Kenmore from sears and it worked fine for 300 dollars. Only thing is the throat was a little tight for the fabric.

kkjinde

haha. I like your last comment. :)

kkjinde

Oh, I forgot to mention that I have an old Singer from my great aunt, that works, in storage, that I hope to be getting in the summer. I think it's from the 40's or 50's. Do you think I could FMQ on that without stressing it?

Quilting Nonnie

I have a featherweight from singer made in that time period and my machine repair guy told me it wouldn't hold up to FMQ. There's lots of featherweight people on board, maybe they have done FMQ on a Singer that age.

LivelyLady

That's what I did, too. I would think that as long as you drop the feed dogs and get a quilting foot you should be good to go. And as Julie R said, the money you save you can buy more fabric :)

thepolyparrot

If it's from the 40's or 50's, you're not going to stress it - unless it's a Featherweight.

I will cross my fingers that you have a model 15 - a just-about-perfect FMQ machine. :)

Mitch's mom

I completely agree. The 15-91 is a wonderful machine for piecing and FMQ. I have 3 of them - in case the one I am using decides it needs a spa day. Heavy little suckers, though!

If it is a 201 or a Slant -O-Matic like a 401, 403, 404, 500 or 503 it will be great for piecing but not so great for FMQ because the bobbin is horizontal which makes the thread path turn a corner. On the Slants, along with the drop in bobbin, they have a pop-up needle plate instead of drop feed dogs.

ckcowl

there are lots and lots of machines that you can quilt on...people quilt beautifully on treadles and featherweights, so yes, you can find a wide assortment of sewing machines in that price range . it takes practice and maybe a few classes to get good regardless of the machine you are using.