snippets from the craft show

Last Sunday,  DD and I went to the annual Stitches and Craft Show held at Darling Harbour, in Sydney. We were already tired from the sock workshop the day before (yes, it went well thanks). DD had missed the Show last year due to giving birth to Younger Grandson and I had missed most of it due to looking for a sewing machine on my first day’s visit and teaching knitting at the Guild stand on my second day’s visit.

DD and I went to quite a few “workshops”. I don’t know why they call them workshops – they are “talks” or, in some cases, product demonstrations. The first talk we attended was about embroidery hints and tips (and products). DD wanted to go home as soon as it was over – she was already raring to get at some handwork! Inevitably, one of us gets all excited and wants to go home within the first hour of being there!

Some “workshops” we attended together, some we went in two different directions. I attended a talk given by Reece Scannell and Kathy Doughty (Material Obsession) about the use of colour. It was only when Kathy took over for the second thirty minutes that I remembered the camera in my bag.

The final workshop we attended was Saffron Craig talking about her latest designs.
(Sorry about the hassle with the camera, Saffron, and thanks for allowing me to take and publish this photo.)

The hat in front was made from a Saffron Craig fabric by Nicole Mallalieu (You Sew Girl).

BTW, I don’t have permission to publish the photos of the quilts here, sorry. You can go to the two posts on Di’s blog (here and here) to see the photos which she has permission to publish. This is the link to the Quilt Guild of NSW website to see the prize winning quilts.

DD and I made the mistake of going to look at the quilts at 3:30; we had been at the Show since 10am. It was too much. Next year we are going for two days!

an attempt at fabric shopping

While out and about on Thursday, I visited one of the two Big Box Stores.

Exclusively in Australia, Sp*tl*ght have the new range of Denyse Schmidt fabrics - "Picnics and Fairgrounds" - at $16.95 a metre; they had about twenty different fabrics at my local store. The quality was okay but I don't really like the range - not my thing at all. You can see a picture of the fabric line here at Red Pepper Quilts.

I was at the Big Box Store to buy some inexpnsive fabric to make another change mat for GS#1 - he is too big to use the change table and keeps rolling off the mat we have (it's way too small). But I couldn't find any fabrics that really excited me! He is not a baby anymore so "cutsie" just won't cut it and I'm already finding that nice "boy" fabrics are hard to get!

Fortunately, I am back at the Stitches and Craft Fair today so hopefully I'll get a chance to look at fabrics (as well as teach knitting and test drive machines).

two x 1.5 metres of polar fleece (148cm wide)

So, I left the Big Box Store with this polar fleece fabric to make some ponchos for a local group home for disabled adults. They wear the ponchos whilst sitting outside in their wheelchairs waiting to board the bus. At least I can blanket stitch these by hand - if I can find out how big the ponchos are supposed to be!

While waiting at the counter I saw a request for bags (either tote or drawstring minimum size 40cm x 40cm) and blankies (minimum size 70cm x 70cm) for Angels for the Forgotten.

Now if I just had a sewing machine I could make these things ... I guess I'll have to knit or crochet!

the quest continues

I have sewing machines on my brain at the moment. That's partly because I decide I want to do something then remember that I can't because I have no sewing machine here! :-(

But mostly it's because I have to make a decision on (or before) Sunday. Two of the six companies at the Fair will only give the special price if a deposit is paid during the Show. In some cases the saving is a few hundred dollars so, of course, I want to take advantage of the sale price.

So today I tried to compare the five machines left on my short list - Janome, Pfaff, Elna, Husqvarna and Singer (in the order I tested them not of merit or desirability).

If you read the extremely long post I wrote yesterday (my sincere thanks if you waded through all that), you may recall that they didn't have the machine I had at the top of my list on the Janome stand. Today I found out why - I visited my local Janome dealer; it is a straight stitching machine! According to their blurb it is the "fastest straight stitching machine in the range and can stitch up to 1600 stitches per minute"! But it doesn't do blanket stitch or satin stitch - so it's no good to me as an applique quilter!

So, that one is off my list. I can't imagine they sell many of those machines; no wonder they chose not to bring it to the Show! After all they have to bring dressmaking machines and quilting machines and embroidery machines at different price points and fit it all in a space of about ten square metres!

I went from my local Janome dealer to the quilting shop where I do my classes. They don't sell machines but they used to be Bernina dealers. As I said in my previous post, Bernina is not on the list because they don't do a wide throat model in my price range. I have plans to make a whole cloth quilt one day and I must have the widest throat I can get.

I talked at length to one of the owners of the business. She could add very little to what I had already heard but she did tell me what customers/students say about their machines. She would, understandably, buy another Bernina machine for herself but could see why I didn't want to buy one. She also told me which of the five I was still considering she would buy.

But the most helpful thing I got from her was the phone number of the man who will be servicing both the "sick" Brother I left there on Monday and my new machine.

When WM and I wanted to buy a used car, we went to our mechanic and asked his opinion - after all, he has to get the parts and work on the car so he knows what he is talking about and has no affiliation to any brand. I was already aware that the sewing machine repairman used to be a dealer for Bernina and that was his preferred brand. But I called him and told him my five choices - he told me one not to touch, and two which he finds the easiest to get parts for.

My choice is now limited to two brands, or four machines (two in each brand). All four are very similar - the more expensive in each brand has more features than the less expensive model.

So I have to decide between the less expensive model in the range or the more expensive model - and which of the two brands I prefer.

On Saturday afternoon, when I have finished teaching knitting on the Guild stand, I will test drive all four machines again. I need to make a decision before the Show finishes on Sunday afternoon!

Stay with me, we are approaching the end of my quest!

test driving

eta (27 June): This post has been linked to from Amy's Creative Side in which we were asked to name a goal and say how we went! Mine was "to test drive as many sewing machines as I could" and I achieved that last Wednesday. I would have got mine today if it hadn't been for the birth of Grandbubby The Second (yesterday) and the subsequent babysitting of Grandson #1 for a few days! Some things in life are more important even than sewing machines!! LOL

 warning: a long post about the hunt for a sewing machine

Yesterday, a good friend (D.), who is an experienced quilter, and I arrived at the Craft and Quilt Fair at exactly 10am. The next time I thought about it, it was 2pm. I had spent four hours test-driving, talking and walking! My head was overloaded with information and I needed my lunch.

Aurora 440 QE

When we arrived at the Show, we went first to the Bernina stand. They have a machine specifically designed for quilting but the throat is the standard size and really, I know that if I buy that machine I will regret it.

The one thing that Bernina has over all the other machines is a stitch regulator that regulates "the length of your stitches so you can create consistent, free motion stitching" (from the Bernina advertising brochure). If Bernina had a machine with a wide throat in my price range, there would have been no contest!

From Bernina we went to Janome. Would you believe that they didn't have the machine I wanted to test drive? I wanted to look at the 1600P-QC. The only dedicated quilting machine they had at the show was the Memory Craft 6600. And then they gave me the brochure for the Memory Craft 6500 instead! So I still haven't driven the machine that was at the top of my list!

On to the next company, where my poor friend was devastated to learn that Janome is not made in Japan and  Elna is not made in Sweden - they both come out of the same factory in China! And that Singer, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff are not really independent brands; they come from the same parent company manufacturing in, you guessed it, China!

The Pfaff machines are the ones I remember the least! I looked at the Expressions 2.0 and the Expressions 4.0 but was only given a quote for the cheaper one. Looking at the pictures and brochure doesn't help. I think it just felt much the same as the Janome I had driven a few minutes earlier.

Elna 7300

On to Janome's sister company - Elna. This time I did get to look at the machine which was number 2 on my list. Unfortunately, the demonstrator actually works for Janome so didn't appear to be super confident on the Elna machine.

I have been using mechanical machines all my sewing life - about 36 years; first a Singer Capri (bought in 1974) and most recently DD's Brother PS-53. I have also used very old Bernina machines. Sewing on these computer driven machines was like moving from an old 1960s car to a new car with power steering and ABS - no comparison! They all sewed beautifully and seemed much of a muchness to me!

Sapphire 875

Brain weary, we pushed on - this time to Husqvarna Viking. We looked at two machines - the Sapphire 875 and the Sapphire 885. D. gasped and her eyes opened wide. Her comment: "This machine was designed by someone who sews!" She was so impressed that I made up my mind right there and then that I would buy one of these two machines (although one was outside my budget).

One of the features of the Husqvarna machine that we both really liked (apart from its uncluttered looks) was that the computer screen showed the stitch I would get in real size! This is the only one of the six brands I tested that did that! The computer screen also "spoke"  in English words - not symbols and numbers! However, I did feel that the Sapphire didn't drive as smoothly as the Janome, Elna or Pfaff. Apparently I felt that because it is actually a little noisier than the other machines.

Finally we went to Singer. Here we had the best demonstration of a machine we had had all day. I had to remind myself several times that I should concentrate on the features of the machine and not the ability of the demonstrator (who owned the same machine we were looking at). The Singer threaded up in much the same way my old Capri did (some things never change) but after that the similarities ended. I was impressed with the Singer machine  - but no more so than many of the others.

After lunch D. and I looked at the quilt exhibition and then wandered back to some of the stands selling quilting and related goodies. D. bought some buttons and joined a "block of the month" club. I talked to my sewing teacher, Elizabeth, from Aussie Patches and she though all the machines I was considering were good choices.

We then went to HobbySew to talk to the machine salesperson there. Because HobbySew sells all of the brands I had tried (except Singer), there is no particular bias towards one company. In the end, I left feeling more confused than ever! If only Bernina made a machine with a wide throat I wouldn't have to make a decision! I'd know what I wanted to buy!

I am going back to the Show on Saturday to work on the Knitters' Guild stand in the morning so I think I'll be revisiting the sewing machines in the afternoon!

Thanks D. for taking the time to come to the Fair with me and to help me ask the "right" questions while we were there!

sewing machine

The Craft and Quilt Fair begins at the Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour (Sydney) on Wednesday 22nd June.

I'm in the market for a new sewing machine. So far I'm looking at either the Janome 1600P-QC or the Elna 7300 "Quilting Queen".

What sewing machine do you use?
What do you like about it?
What do you not like about it?