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Know Thy Machine - Juki 2010Q

Well I am extremely embarrassed! A few months back I saw that a fellow quilter who I met in my Modern Quilters Facebook Group, was having a really awesome blog hop called Know Thy Machine. I immediately wanted to sign up, but somehow did not see all the emails about the schedule assignments and everything required for the hop. So I just assumed she was full and I wasn't in it. Well I just got word that I was scheduled for November 15th, and I was a no show! I feel so terrible! So to those of you loyal followers who came to my blog looking for the post in order to enter the prize drawing I AM SOOOOO SORRY! But, I decided to write my post anyways. So today I am going to share with you all about my sewing machine! We were given questions to answer

What machine(s) do you have? Brand and Model.

I currently have two machines.

My older Elna 3007, I purchased it used on craigslist from a sweet lady who could no longer sew due to her health. She had taken real good care of it, and it is a solid little machine for basic sewing. Although I feel like I out grew it very quickly. I still use it occasionally for zig-zag stitching or appliqué. It was acting up the other day and I think it may be due for a service.

My new baby is my Juki TL-2010Q, and boy do I love it! That is the machine I will be sharing about today.

When and where did you buy it? What were the reasons for selecting this(these) particular model(s). What was its approximate cost.

I bought my new Juki in September. I purchased it at one of my local quilt shops, 35th Ave and Sew Vac. I really wanted to purchase locally so I could easily take it in for servicing and could have a local partner for sewing machine help. I paid about $1000 plus tax, I believe and they also gave me a $100 Gift Card to use on fabric in the shop. I think you can find the machine a little bit cheaper online, but again I was willing to pay a bit more just to support my local quilt shop and have the local service. I asked a TON of people before I picked my Juki. First I needed to determine what the greatest need was. Quilting, applique, bag making, etc. what would I need the machine for the most. I knew that finding a machine that would be great at all those things in my price range would be really hard to find. In the end I new my Elna would still work find for applique and zig-zags stitching, but it could NOT handle FMQ and quilting very well at all.

What do you like about your machine? Have you named it? Have you made a cover for it?

I pretty much LOVE everything about my machine. Maybe since I went from using a $150 machine to a $1000 machine I am a little bias haha, but it really is a dream machine to me. It's a complete work horse, it can stitch through layers and layers of fabric without even budging, it FMQ and machine quilts so beautifully and really could be used on a quilting frame if I wanted. It has a very high and wide harp space which makes quilting larger quilts much easer. It also has speed control, needle down, thread cutter, and leg presser bar. It is straight stitch machine, so It does not have any decorative stitches, it also does not have a free-arm. It truly is a quilting machine, so it is perfect for piecing and quilting. I haven't named my machine yet, but you could help me come up with a name! I have been wanting to make a cover and sewing machine caddy really bad, but other projects always get in the way. Maybe this month? I did by a rolling tote for it last night at Joann's for Black Friday :)

Does your machine give you any problems? Could you tell us a few?

 

So far the only problem that I run into is sort of a slacker user error issue. If I use my thread cutter it will cut the thread pretty short. If I just begin sewing my next piece with out pulling the thread out a bit, often times the needle will come unthreaded. Besides that I really have had no machine issues.

What do you sew on it mainly? Quilts, Clothes, Bags etc. How much time do you spend sewing on it? What are the features of the machine that help you improve your work?

I am primarily a Quilter. Occasionally I will make bags or accessories. I spend hours daily sewing on it. The Juki is a complete quilting machine, so it has improved my FMQ skills tremendously, it makes machine quilting so much fun. Also being a straight stitch only machine I can tell a serious improvement in quality in my piecing and FMQ.

What advice would you give others when deciding about which machine to buy?

First sit down and decide exactly what you need. DO NOT try and find a machine that will fit all your wants and needs. Unless of course you have the money to spend. Figure out what you NEED and try and find machines that fit that need. Then go in person and test drive them. I was completely in love with the Janome Horizon, until I actually used it in person and realized it just wasn't for me. So testing them is really important.

Will you share with us a special memory associated with your machine?

HAHA, I have already made some interesting memories with my beautiful Juki. Lets just say they were really painful, BUT I still love her! I have sewn completely through my finger twice while FMQ on my Juki. The first time was while I was quilting my Pixels of Love quilt. I went through just the tip of my finger, but the second time was while I was quilting the cream portion of my Groove quilt and that time I think the needle hit my bone and deflected out the side of my finger. WHOA, I almost fainted. The worst part was I was going so fast that the needle went in twice before I could stop and it stopped in down position. Ouch.

If you had unlimited resources in the world, which machine would you choose to buy and why?

Well someday I would really like to get the Juki Exceed to accommodate my decorative stitch needs. It is acctually only about $800, if I did get it I would probably put my current Juki on a Long Arm Frame.

The second machine I dream about is brand new and was just annouced at the Fall Quilt MajJuki Longarm machine which I pretty much would love to have. I suppose I am a Juki convert now :) If you want a little more in depth information about my sewing machine history I wrote a post a while back here.

Thank you so much for bearing with my huge scheduling mistake, and I hope you enjoy the rest of this wonderful blog hop! Head on over to 13 Woodhouse Road to follow all the Know Thy Machine posts and learn about a bunch of sewing machines!

Alyssa

 
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Creator of Pile O' Fabric

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