Intoducing.....

I begged.  I pleaded.  I gave gifts.  I sought professional help several times, but to no avail.  Bernie just refused to free motion quilt except for one particular brand of thread that I didn't particularly want to use.  J.Jr. will do in a pinch, but not something I wanted to free motion on for the long term.  There was only one thing left to do.

Introducing Mr. J!

Mr. J

Mr. J's full name is the Juki TL-98Q.  He is a light industrial level machine that only does straight stitch.  The throat area is extra large both in length and height, allowing for lots of room to maneuver a bulky quilt.  He is also faster than a domestic machine, so there has been a little bit of a learning curve with the foot pedal. Nevertheless we are getting along famously.  Things are humming right along with the baby quilt.

Bernie is still around for piecing and general sewing.  In order to have both machines set up, I had to rearrange my studio.

Though the feel of the room is less open with this set-up, functionally it is great.  Having the two tables together gives me a large space for the quilt while I am working on it and the cutting area also works well for laying out the quilt for marking.  I move my chair around to wherever I need to work.

I look forward to showing the results on Dot to Dot.