sewn3w

I belong to the smaller machine group. Wouldn't trade my VSM's for a boat load of money. Everyone in my sewing group has computerized and large harp machines that they either fight with to get the settings right or on their backup machine because the "good" one is being adjusted yet again. They are always amazed at how much I get done on a sewing day while they fiddle away with their machines.

Grace creates

I quilt and piece on my little Bernina Activa and love it so much. I do wish I had the extension table, but being resourceful I pile books behind the machine to let the quilt rest on.

tuckyquilter

I don't even own anything close to a computerized machine. The Janome 415 is the newest and he isn't reliable when it comes to even sewing decent stitches. I quilt on a 301A Singer and right now am doing some grid quilting on my featherweight. My goal is to use the treadle like Tim Latimer does. I have 10 machines now, having just received a Singer FashionMate from a friend at church who doesn't sew at all. But I do have friends who have the fancy machines and they are always in the shop for something. Mine I get tuned up every 2-3 yrs and keep them oiled between.

tuckyquilter

I Love my Singers. I have several and they never fail me. They can do it all when it comes to sewing/quilting. Ok they don't cut my thread, easy thread or have embroidery.. BUT who cares. Putting out great quilts is the idea. LOL

tuckyquilter

Me too. But I use Candy Glendening Column quilting (youtube tutorials) and can do Any Size I want. The only thing I change on her method is I make the back one piece and only sew the columns and battings on one column at a time.

JuneBillie

I have pieced, and almost finished quilting a queen size quilt for my son's new camper. It has the cotton top, and middle batting, but the backing is fleece. I have used my walking foot to be able to quilt it with my brother's little throat. It has been an experience.

lindsayfarm

I have a HV Rose. The largest I can quilt is a twin. It doesn't have enough throat space for me. It doesn't have the automatic cutter or threader, but sews great and its 20 years old.

Iceblossom

Back around 1980 I had a pretty good machine (top of the line Sears, forgot who made them), last version of the ones with Cams before they went computerized. I think it was more than a month's salary at the time... Loved it for about five years but then it broke. Part not under warranty. Tried to fix through Sears, through repair shops... couldn't get the part.

So around 1990 I started sewing on a friend's grandmother's machine. She had asked me what to price it for at a Garage Sale and I said "price at $40 and take any offer -- my offer is $20" so she said sold! Machine was/is a Remington older than I am (I am circa 1960), and has been a work horse. It offers up a good solid straight stitch, the feed dogs take up the fabric smoothly, it is easy to adjust stitch width, etc. A nice little machine. I am able to do the basic maintenance on such a machine with no problems. Does have foot plates and can do zig zag, but weighs a ton and a half.

Just this past August, my friend in Arizona gifted me with her modern Bernina 820 she wasn't clicking with and plus she loves me and is concerned about my declining vision and felt that I could use a self-threading machine. She had already gotten a different one she likes better. LOL I've had cars that cost less than this machine. I'm clicking just fine with it, thank you I am pushing myself to use the modern features and not just ignore them. I've been doing projects just to learn the machine.

So yes, auto-threader is lovely. I love the thread cutter too, it's nice to have less threads on me and I recently did a couple of projects that involved partial seams that were excellent with the cutter. My friend never used the knee bar to lift the presser foot up/down but I love it. I'm trying to remember that I can tap the foot pedal to make the needle stop up or down. Machine has a super large capacity bobbin, as a quilter I really appreciate that. The machine has basically a built-in walking foot as well as the BSR (bernina stitch regulator), I've used both techniques on baby quilts and it was lovely. The throat space is huge. It's all very nice and I appreciate it very much!

But I still maintain, all I really need is my sturdy little vintage workhorse for piecing. I had already decided I could not quilt as I desired sufficiently on it any longer. Sure, I was able to push a king sized quilt through it on a simple in the ditch grid, but I want to do more than that and never want to do that again!