What sewing machine is best for quilting?

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Hi, I'm looking for a sewing machine that's suitable for general dressmaking (at the moment simple dresses for my pre-school DD) but also for quilting. My budget is around £150/200. What make/model sewing machine do you suggest (quilters in particular!). Thanks.

watching with interest....

I don't know what particular make but you would be looking for one with a large throat.

I would start by looking at the ones sold by specialist quilting suppliers like Cottonpatch since they will have picked out the ones that work best for quilting.

just realised how expensive those Cottonpatch ones are, sorry!

Do it by hand.Machine quilting isn't nice.

John Lewis is close to me so I was thinking about the £200 approx range of their sewing machines.

For example, this Janome one.

I like ad sewing but really want to do more machine sewing too and I have no problem with quilting by and and by machine, moondog.

*hand sewing, not ad sewing, damn iPad!

Try and get a machine with a double feed. It stops the layers from slipping when you sew. I have a pretty basic Pfaff and use it for machine quilting when I am bored with hand quilting or running out of time.

Sorry, that should be "dual feed", not double feed.

Walking foot - make sure whatever machine you get can use a walking foot, and budget to buy one. It makes SO much difference. I have a husqvarna and I love it, fwiw.

Thanks everyone. I like the idea of handquilting too. How long does it take you to hand quilt say a child's quilt and is it really fiddly?

I have a Janome Sewist 525S which I am really pleased with and costs just over £200. It is a Which best buy. I use it mainly for piecing and then quilt by hand, but I have bought a walking foot for it to try some machine quilting and a darning foot for free motion quilting. Now here's the rub- those extra feet cost about £40 extra each.

If you can extend your budget to £300 then I would go for this, which includes a quilting kit worth approx £99- all in all a good deal I think! www.sewingmachines.co.uk/Janome601_info.htm

HTH.

Oh and to answer the question about hand quilting. I made a child's quilt for my friend's daughter- slightly smaller than single sized duvet. It took me 3 months to make, of which most time was spent on the hand quilting. I did 5inch patchwork squares and outline quilted them using perle cotton. it is time consuming but I love it and find it very restful. Very straightforward since it was basically sewing in a straight line and I use quilters tape to mark my lines.

I've made and handquilted 3 kingsize quilts and 4 baby ones.
If you do al ittle every night/day, it doesn't take too long.
Love in every stitch!

I've only done one handquilted and one machine quilted, both large single size; the machine quilting was harder than I had expected (I got a walking foot halfway through) and the handquilting took a few weeks of evenings. Much preferred the handquilting, though if I was better at it perhaps I would like machine quilting more.... Hand was definitely easier than machine, and very satisfying.

I have quilted a Queen size HSQ quilt on my Janome DC3050 - £229 from John Lewis :)

I'm going to check those sewing machines out. Thanks all for the tips.

I think I'm also going to start small and hand stitch a quilted cushion cover or doll's mini quilt first just to get to grips with quilting (on a small scale) before I splash out on a machine. I love knitting with the TV or radio on at night or with my DD playing at my feet so hand stitching a small patchworked item first will work well I think.

Just bought Cath Kidston's Patch and borrowed a greay book from the library which as some easy patchwork/quilting projects in it (Queen of Crafts by Jazz Domino Holly) and this weekend I'll pick up some fabric off cuts or fat quarters.

I can't wait!

Handquilting is easier to pick up and put down and I prefer it although I am too scared to have a proper go on the machine - I have done some but not on anything that matter!

If you hand sew you can take it back a few stitches if you don't like what you have done but if you machine and get it wrong it is a devil to take out and do again. Machine sewing takes a lot of practice but if you can sew by hand, hand quilting is no trouble.

If it helps I have a Janome machine which I quite like. Have you thought of second hand to get a few more features and maybe a slightly longer arm?

Machine quilting is quite easy. I have machine quilted a double quilt on a normal sewing machine (was a bit of a squash getting half the quilt under the arm, but it was fine).

Proper layering of the quilt is essential for a good finish. I tape the quilt backing (wrong side up!!!) to the floor using masking tape, to make it as perfectly flat and smooth as possible, then lay the wadding over, smoothing thoroughly, then the top layer (right side up!). Then pin everything furiously. (ie a long quilting pin every 2-3 inches). Peel quilt away from masking tape carefully to avoid disturbing the layers. Start quilting from the centre outwards.

When machine quilting even baby quilts you will really benefit from wearing quilting gloves here which are white cotton with rubber dots on. They provide grip as guiding the quilt through the machine is surprisingly hard physically.

A great tutorial is here - shows how you can create beautiful machine quilts.

HTH

Quilting gloves, genius! Had no idea such a thing existed so I'm going to put them on my Christmas list.

I find 505 adhesive spray useful for holding together quilt layers before basting/pinning. Also use it it for other sewing craft problems, like attaching gold lame braid to a Roman costume before sewing. .

OP, you can do a 'rustic' hand quilting using long stitches.

Also, I have a Janome SL30X which is produced by Janome just for Costco. Costs about £230 but is a higher spec than a £230 Janome on the high street. I love it.

'i have a brother sewing machine and it is brilliant! But did have a basic Janome for years and would recomend them too.

Goodness, fantastic tips, thank you all so much .

I found this free eBook on sewing machines and which machine's are best for particular needs. ideas.stitchcraftcreate.co.uk/janome-sewing-machine-buyers-guide/