Meet My Machine Blog Hop

Have you been following along with the Meet My Machine Blog hop at The Tilted Quilt?

 

 

It has been fun to read about other machines and what people like and don't like about their machine.  It is so interesting to me because many of the machines are some that I considered before making my purchase.  As I have discussed, I have been machine-less recently and just got a new machine less than a week ago.

 

But, lets start at the beginning.  This is my first sewing machine that I got as a kid.  It is a Singer purchased from Walmart for $99.  There was nothing fancy here, but it is a solid machine that has pieced a lot of quilts.

 

 

 

As I started getting more into quilting, I upgraded to another Singer from Walmart about 10 years ago.

 

 

 

This machine was a bit more fancier, but those features gave out years ago.  I cant remember the last time I was able to get any other stitch to work besides a straight stitch.  Around Christmas, I noticed that the feed dogs didn't seem to work well and that I really felt like I was ready to upgrade.

 

After going to classes at Quiltcon, especially a free motion quilting class, I realized that I needed a new machine to go with me to new places with my quilting.  I tried to FMQ on this machine and it totally gave out and kept freezing up.  Finally, small chunks of metal were falling out when I stitched.  I think that some sort of bracket wore out and broke.  I wanted to go back to my first Singer, but that no longer worked at all. Now, I was machine-less.

 

I did some research and after testing some machines, I went with the Janome MC8900 from Sew Vac Direct. 

 

 

 

I know that some people name their machines, and I never did before.  But I think this is a she, and I am still thinking of a name for her.  It cant be some cutesy name because I think she has a bad streak in her.  It was obvious when I had all these machines out together for the photos.  She kinda has an attitude of  "I'm bad and I know it".

 

I have had this machine less than a week, and I have been overwhelmed and intimidated by her.  So far the pros are:  the speed (wild fun!), the automatic thread cutter, and I especially love the needle threader!

 

The cons are nothing yet.  But I am having a hard time trying to figure out the foot to use for a 1/4 inch.  There is a 1/4 inch foot, but I need to try to find the correct needle position.  The default position does not give me a 1/4 inch seam!  I need to do more testing.

 

On my previous post, I showed my first attempt at FMQ.  So far, so good.