Comment

Comment by Kathryn Bates on July 27, 2012 at 12:43pm

I used to own a Janome, and it was great -  I actually used it as trade-in on my current "Big Brother".  I've owned a Kenmore in the past, too - and it made about 40 quilts before I traded it in on the "Little Brother" (my 2500D).  I grew up sewing on a Singer (the first one was actually my grandmother's treadle machine).  I also have a small Brother straight sewing machine for schlepping to classes, and it's pretty good too.  I guess I've never met a machine I didn't like!  

Comment by Karen Lightman on July 27, 2012 at 5:55am

I have a Brother NX 2000 and love it...when it's not in the shop. For some reason the thread cutter blade keeps getting bent and jams up the needle. I use my machine for hours a day every day but still..it shouldn't be doing this. The guys at the shop where I bought it (used) assure me they'll get to the bottom of things. I love to free-motion, not that I'm good at it yet, but practicing is so much fun! I hand quilt too so I've been busy while the machine is gone and I have a little Kenmore ($79.00) I got years ago that pulls through for me for piece quilting but that's about all it can do. Gosh, I make it sound like the machine's been gone for months....it's only been three days lol.  Anyway, I plan to get a Janome for back up next week. It has all the bells and whistles of a nice mid-grade machine and I think I'll love it! Sometimes I like using my simple machine over the Brother...but only sometimes : )

Comment by Kathryn Bates on July 24, 2012 at 12:28pm

I hoop, design by design.  The overall quilting or stippling I do first, and it takes a couple of days on the size I do - about 60x72.  That's interrupted by meals, gardening, naps (I'm retired) and watching the favorite tv shows.  Then I place the decorative designs on the blocks where I want them, and that can take up to another couple of days.  Sometimes I do the stippling right out to the edge, using a thread that disappears on the border strips, and then do a decorative border in a contrasting color.  Takes a while, but looks pretty good in the end, and is way cheaper than paying someone else to do it.  If I had managed to learn to free motion, I'd do that, but just can't seem to relax my shoulders enough to get the flow going.  My free motion attempts look very jerky and uneven.  

Comment by Susan Skuda on July 24, 2012 at 6:58am

Do you actually hoop the quilt or do you have some magnetic hoops?

Comment by sue brigle on July 21, 2012 at 2:55pm

my daughter has a janome and a brother and she likes both of them.   she seldom has time to use either one though because she's a professional longarm quilter and she's kept very busy w/that.

Comment by Kathryn Bates on July 21, 2012 at 12:48pm

Check a Singer dealership. They should support their brand, whether they sold it or not. I understand that they are being better than they were for a while. Like a lot of folks, I learned to sew on a Singer (a treadle one, in fact - wish I still had it!). My mom had a Singer she got when I was about twelve, and I sold that one in 1992 when I retired from the Navy to a young man who liked to make upholstery. He's probably still using it. I didn't quilt then, and when I took my first lessons, I bought a very inexpensive Kenmore from Sears. I pieced at least 30 quilts using it before I got something better. I've since owned a Janome, a Juki, and a Bernina, and all were good machines. I got the Brother kind of on impulse - I knew I wanted an embroidery machine, and they gave me a pretty good deal on my first one, an Innovis 2500. I still have it, and it's my fall back for times like now, when my big machine is in for a physical. I do love both of them.

Comment by sue brigle on July 21, 2012 at 9:22am

well, I should have been a little smarter about it, I bought it on impulse from the shopping network.   seemed like a good idea at the time.   and really it's a good machine, I just need to learn more about it.   like you said I should take some classes. 

Comment by Kathryn Bates on July 20, 2012 at 9:09pm

Sue - I'm so sorry the Singer doesn't work for you. My Brother is easy to use, and I love it. I know that I learned a lot about the functions by taking the store's "how to use it" classes, which were free. If you've never done this, you might want to check and see if they can help you.

Comment by sue brigle on July 20, 2012 at 1:41pm

I have a singer w/embroidery capabilities, but it's kind of a pain to get it there.   My daughter finally got it to work once or twice, but it isn't as easy as they make it seem.   So I've never used the embroidery function, otherwise I like the machine well enough.