I am frequently asked for my thoughts on how to choose the best sewing machines for quilting. With people having more dedicated time at home over the past years, many people are taking up new &#; or renewing old hobbies. Whether you are looking for a brand new beginner, entry-level sewing machine or you&#;re ready to update your previous machine for larger throat space, variety of built-in stitches or other handy features, I&#;ve got lots of advice for you today. Continue reading to learn more about qualities to look for in the best quilting sewing machines!
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My first and most important tip: find a local sewing machine dealer. Don&#;t buy a machine from a big box store (Target, Costco, etc.). Those big box stores like to make it feel like you&#;re getting a great deal. But when it comes to well-calibrated machines that you&#;ll to enjoy year after year, project after project without any grief, the old adage is true: You get what you pay for.
That is not to say that you need to spend a lot of money if you&#;re just getting started or maybe buying a first machine for a child or friend. There are some GREAT entry level machines at very reasonable prices. I&#;ll get to those below.
The reason you want to buy a machine from a licensed sewing machine dealer is that relationship is worth every penny. The A#1 reason to shop at a dealers is they let you try all of the machines before you buy one.
And then they will help you find the machine that is just right for your sewing level and budget. In addition to those invaluable reasons, they will often also provide access to free classes (in person or online) to help you learn how to get the most out of your machine.
They also typically provide maintenance, repair, and trouble-shooting services if something goes wrong or when your machine just needs a tune-up.
And finally, a dealer will also allow your the opportunity to exchange your machine for new one when ever you are ready to upgrade! Dealers really are the best resource there is when it comes to finding happiness and satisfaction with a sewing machine.
They WANT you to succeed.
The machines at big box stores are generally lower quality and no one at Costco is going to teach you how to use your machine or help you troubleshoot when you run into a problem. (Which you most likely will sooner or later with one of those machines.)
I have been working in a sponsored partnership with Baby Lock sewing machines for the past few years and have genuinely LOVED each machine that I&#;ve worked with. Baby Lock has provided me with a variety of sewing machines to sample and try out &#; from simple to super technically advanced &#; and I&#;ve loved every one. Since these are the sewing machines I&#;m most familiar with, I will be sharing my recommendations based on what I&#;ve learned and my own personal experiences.
Baby Lock has a sewing machine that is just right for any level &#; a simple basic machine for a beginner or super high-tech, state-of-the-art machine will all the bells and whistles. They also have machines simple or complex to fit your needs! You can find your nearest Baby Lock dealer here.
If you don't have a local dealer, Baby Lock Machines are now available directly online. AND get 10% off any purchase online from Baby Lock with the coupon code SAVE10-ASM2.
Recently I visited My Girlfriend&#;s Quilt Shoppe &#; a local Baby Lock Sewing Machines dealers&#; and they walked me through all of the latest options and levels of machines. Here are some of their recommendations (and mine):
Baby Lock recently released the the Genuine Collection &#; a refreshed collection of updated smaller, entry level machines. Here&#;s what I&#;ve learned and my experiences with beginner, entry level machines.
If you&#;re looking for an inexpensive beginner-friendly, entry-level sewing machine, a Baby Lock Zest is the perfect machine. It&#;s doesn&#;t have all of the bells and whistles, making it affordable, but still sturdy and reliable. Russell Conte &#; an experienced garment sewer and instructor, who teaches sewing classes at a college, uses and recommends these sewing machines for their beginning students. I highly trust his experience, opinion and recommendation.
If you are looking for a good just-beyond-entry-level-machine, whether it&#;s your first sewing machine, or you&#;re looking for a second machine that is easily portable, I highly recommend the Baby Lock Jubilant (read my review here). It&#;s a lightweight and easily portable machine (making it a great travel machine) but is sturdy with a consistent stitch. I have been sewing with the Jubilant for over multiple years now &#; especially when I am taking a machine to sew away from home.
This machine has over 80 built-in-stitches &#; including overlock, buttonholes, and a variety of decorative stitches And it also sews a beautiful straight stitch at a decent speed- which is my biggest preference in a sewing machine.
Most Baby Lock sewing machines have a handy top drop-in bobbin making threading the machine easy.
The no-frills Jazz regular sewing machine is super simple to operate, sews 1,000 stitches per minute, has 28 different stitches, large throat space, and feed dogs that drop for free motion quilting. It&#;s another popular machine without extra frills that offers a lot of bang for the buck. It&#;s designed to be very easy to navigate and operate.
Another great mid-level upgrade is the Lyric. You can read Dana&#;s (from Dana Made It) review of her Lyric here.
If you&#;re looking for a one-stitch/straight-stitch machine &#; as in you only need to sew a simple straight line and want to do it fast &#; the Baby Lock Accomplish is for you! I shared more about the benefits of a straight-stitch machine and my experience with the Accomplish here.
This Accomplish is a heavy-duty sewing machine with a metal frame and all metal parts + knee-lift lever attachment that can sew 1,500 stitches per minute. This sturdy machine is perfect for any garment or quilting project.
One of the pros of a mechanical machine is that they tend to be simple to operate (with minimal gizmos) and all mechanical &#; meaning no computerized parts. As a result, these purely-mechanical machines also require a lot less maintenance and fiddling. Even the thread tension settings are easier on a mechanical machine.
This machine as its own selection of presser feet unique to this straight-stitch work horse, including it's own walking foot attachment.
The Accomplish also has expanded throat space and comes with a large extension table which is great for machine quilting. This machine is a work horse ready for sewing pedal to the metal.
If you&#;re ready to upgrade to a higher-end machine, I recommend the Baby Lock Aria or the Chorus. I&#;ve been sewing on the Baby Lock Chorus and it sews SO beautifully! It&#;s a bigger machine with a wide throat space for quilting and includes a dual-feed presser foot attachment with stitch regulator (an upgrade from a regular walking foot) and a free-motion foot as well as a knee lifter for fast transitions. Also capacity for a wider stitch width - and therefore more decorative stitch options.
It also includes lots of other fancy features like a scissors button (automatic thread cutter) for instantly trimming threads. I love not having to remember to hold thread tails when I start sewing or long threads tails trailing from every seam. The automatic thread cutter makes for more efficient bobbin use. The automatic needle threader makes threading the needle SO easy.
I also love the laser beam light you can cast on to the needle plate and beyond &#; perfect for making half square triangles or snow-ball corners. It also has amazing dual-feed stitching option for with a stitch-regulator for evenly-feeding fabric layers&#; perfect for sewing on binding or working with more slippery materials.
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The great thing is that many of these plus features are available in other Baby Lock machines at a variety of price points.
You can read more about a Crescendo machine in this review by Elizabeth Chappell of Quilter's Candy. (We had very similar experiences switching machines.)
Honestly, there are so many handy dandy features on new machines these days. If it&#;s been a while since you&#;ve tried a newer sewing machine you might have fun visiting a dealer and just seeing how far machines have come!
Another one of the things I love most about Baby Lock sewing machine is that they come with a range of accessories and over 7 sewing feet including a blind stitch and zipper foot. And if you need/want to buy other accessories, their sewing feet attachments are so reasonably priced &#; it&#;s easy and affordable to get the ones that you want. AND many of these sewing feet, bobbins, etc are interchangeable with the other Baby Lock machines. For example, I have a favorite ¼&#; foot that works on both the Jubilant and the Crescendo machine.
Baby Lock also has a range of Sewing Machines combined with Embroidery Machine functions. These machines can be used as a traditional sewing machine, but also have an embroidery attachment for a hoop for computerized embroidery designs. Many fonts and designs are included with the machine and there is also the capability to add other downloaded embroidery files.
I have been using the Baby Lock Destiny II machine (comparable to the current Altair) for about 6 years now and have loved it! One of my favorite features is being able to use files to foundation-piece traditional quilt blocks as well as computerized machine quilting designs to quilt my projects.
Once again, there is a large variety of sizes and price-points - based on hoop and embroidery sizes and machine capabilities. You can see the full range of Baby Lock Embroidery Machines here - and many are also available online directly from Baby Lock.
But if you want to talk in through with a professional, talk to your sewing machine dealer as they will help you find the best machine for your budget and needs.
There&#;s a brief introduction to my favorite Baby Lock machines. A good, trusty sewing machine is worth it&#;s weight in gold. You will get so much more enjoyment out of your sewing experience when you have a reliable machine, as well as a reliable dealer for anytime your well-loved-and-used machine needs a little tune up.
If you&#;d like to learn more about the variety of Baby Lock machines, check out the Baby Lock YouTube Channel for loads of information and sewing machine tips!
Once you get your new machine, don't forget to keep it properly maintained. Learn How to Clean a Sewing Machine here.
Quilting as a hobby is thriving. Perhaps it&#;s because quilters have such huge fabric stashes! As we continue to churn out quilt tops, one fact becomes clear &#; we need to get them quilted!
Unfortunately, pushing a queen-size quilt through a small sewing machine throat can be tedious. If you like to machine-quilt your projects, but are tired of fighting the space limitations of your domestic sewing machine, it may be time to consider adding a longarm quilting machine to your studio.
Innovations in longarm quilting machines &#; such as stitch regulators and simple table design &#; have made machine quilting easy, even for beginners. Technological advances have made these machines affordable for home use. If you are ready to investigate the possibility of a longarm machine, use these tips to help you with your search.
The head size that you for your machine choose will affect the &#;quiltable space&#; you have. For example, mid-arm quilting machines with throat spaces of 18&#; or less may limit your quilting space. Take the table&#;s design into account to determine the actual space you&#;ll have to sew. Machines with 20&#;&#;26&#; of throat space allow room for larger blocks, wider borders, and medallion quilts.
To get a quick overview of the throat spaces of APQS machines, visit this web page.
Many quilters who quilt for other people end up with a longarm quilting machine with a 12-foot table so that they can quilt king-size quilts. However, if you don&#;t anticipate making quilts that large, a 10-foot table will easily handle queen-sized projects.
The table&#;s design is even more important to your decision. It determines how much quilting space you are able to maintain as you progress through your project. Your quilt sandwich accumulates on a single bar commonly called a pick-up roller situated inside the sewing head throat.
On three-bar table designs, your quilt gets larger and larger on this pick-up roller, and begins to fill the usable space. You may find that your design choices are limited to small-scale pantographs or split motifs where you only quilt half of a block before advancing your quilt.
Four-bar systems position the pick-up roller in the deepest part of the machine&#;s throat to maximize quiltable space and keep it consistent. The fourth bar (often called a leveler bar) keeps your quilt flat and level inside the throat.
Take a look at this video and this article to better understand the table options available for APQS machines.
If you have tried free-motion quilting on your sewing machine without a stitch regulator, you know how hard it can be to coordinate your hand movement and machine speed to create consistent stitches. This means stitches can vary in length, and your tension is harder to balance.
The vast majority of quilting machines now give you a range of stitch lengths so that you can simulate primitive stitches or create tiny heirloom stitches with equal precision. All of APQS&#; longarm quilting machines come with a stitch regulator, which reduces your learning curve considerably by giving you the ability to move at a comfortable pace without worrying about your stitch length.
A stitch regulator should give you consistent stitches the minute you begin moving the machine, with crisp, sharp points when you change quilting direction.
Before you buy, test-drive the machine you are considering and carefully examine the stitches. During your test drive, stitch with and without the stitch regulator engaged. You should feel comfortable with the machine in both stitching modes, as well as with the quality of the stitches.
As you shop for a longarm quilting machine, take time to research each machine and evaluate its quality, including the manufacturer&#;s customer service and warranty. At APQS, all new quilting machines are backed by a lifetime warranty on parts and labor.
Today&#;s innovations have made quality longarm machines affordable, even for quilters who only want to quilt for themselves. But be careful &#; if you do buy a longarm quilting machine and your friends discover your secret, you may find yourself unexpectedly in business before you know it!
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