Today is officially day one of the Meet My Machine Blog Hop,
so it’s time to Meet: My Pfaff!
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| Taking over the dining room! |
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I have owned my Pfaff Quilt Expressions 4.0 for almost 2
years now.
For many years I
mooched off my various roommates who all happened to have sewing machines.
I was then given an old singer from a
coworker who knew I would appreciate it.
I used that little workhorse until two years ago when I decided I wanted
to try free motion quilting.
My friend John had purchased a Pfaff for his mother as a
gift and then got the same machine for himself. I had been in the market for a Bernina based solely on their
reputation but not ever having tried one, but when I went to the store with
John in tow, he convinced me to get the same machine as him – the Pfaff QE 4.0.
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| Fancy digital display screen! |
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Some of the features that I was drawn to and still love are:
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The multitude of fancy stitches including 3
alphabets (which I have yet to use)
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Pull down needle threader – how did I live
without this before?
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Automatic thread cutter (another how did I live
without this?!)
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Large throat space
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I can just tap my foot on the foot pedal to
control the presser foot!
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The beep to let me know my bobbin is almost
empty. How considerate!
Some things I'm not so fond of... well, that convenient beep that tells you when you are almost out of bobbin thread? It beeps occasionally when there is still plenty of thread left sometimes due to the manner in which the bobbin was wound. It also automatically STOPS your sewing (Grr..!!!) when it beeps to "help" you out. But for someone like me who likes to sew right to the end of the bobbin thread so as not to waste any... it's rather annoying.
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| Stinky on her perch on the hutch watching me sew |
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| Grandma Kelley's old White sewing machine |
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Also, I originally bought this machine in order to do some free
motion quilting, but didn’t attempt anything until this year.
I ran into lots of issues – skipped stitches,
thread breakage, etc.. – and was on the phone several times with the
store.
They tried to trouble shoot
with me over the phone, but I realized I needed to bring it in.
Turns out I was using the wrong foot with
the wrong setting.
That’s what I
get for having a high falootin’ machine with two different free motion feet and
settings.
At the store, it worked
perfectly of course, and then when I had it home this week, I was still
experiencing some issues with tension and skipping.
I changed threads and it improved slightly, but I’m still
having some issues (see previous post!).
My second machine was my grandmother’s White table-mounted
machine.
It’s cute and blue and I’ve
never officially used it although I hear my cousin used it a few times before
it came to me a few years ago.
Right now I don’t have the proper space for displaying it so it sits
unused.
I also have a third machine that is packed away somewhere inaccessible. It is a Hello Kitty Janome from Target I bought just for it's cuteness factor. I've tried to sew with it a few times, but it has a front loading bobbin which is foreign to me and I quickly defaulted back to my Pfaff.
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| My downstairs space |
My current space is a small but functional. We are living in a rental unit so I can't fully adopt the space as my own, but this is one of the few times I have had a dedicated sewing space. It's on the first floor of our building and it gets rather cold this time of year, so I have taken over the dining room table as well. I can watch TV while working on a project and the cat keeps me company!
I hope you enjoy this blog hop! Make sure to go visit the other participants to see their machines! Here's the line up:
SUNDAY, MARCH 17
MONDAY, MARCH 18
TUESDAY, MARCH 19
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20
THURSDAY, MARCH 21
FRIDAY, MARCH 22
I also have a third machine that is packed away somewhere inaccessible. It is a Hello Kitty Janome from Target I bought just for it's cuteness factor. I've tried to sew with it a few times, but it has a front loading bobbin which is foreign to me and I quickly defaulted back to my Pfaff. 
I've finally started to try out the Free Motion Quilting feature(s) of my machine - after 2 years of ownership! It's been one headache after another so far. I think part of the problem was that my machine has two (countem' two!) different free motion settings and two different feet. The machine came with a plastic free motion/darning foot that works with the Sensormatic free-motion setting and there is another metal foot that can be purchased (and I did) that works with the spring free-motion setting. Or at least that's what I think... I may have them backwards again. Too confusing!
