My first sewing machine was my grandmother’s Juki. I always say that my first sewing machine was a borrowed Singer from my mother because I never considered the Juki mine. I sewed on it as a kid with my grandma teaching me. We sold doll clothes and I watched her make our curtains, our couch throw pillows, hula dance outfits, etc. But while I enjoyed it when we did it, I wouldn’t consider myself really into it and I didn’t really know how to sew or anything. My grandmother left me her Juki and it sat in my mom’s garage for years before she forced me to take it down with me to LA one year. Now it sits in my garage. It’s been moving with me from house to house to house. The hubby and his friends hate it because it is so heavy and we can’t take it out of the table it is attached to. One day, I will learn how to clean it up and get it running again.
So I consider my mom’s sewing machine as my first machine because it is the one I learned to quilt with. It was a great machine to start with because it was free to me. But it was LOUD and I was always embarrassed to bring it to classes, workshops and retreats. It worked fine until I took my first free motion quilting class. I discovered at that class that the machine skipped stitches whenever I went forwards or diagonal. So I saved for my own sewing machine.
I got the Bernina 330 in August of 2011 and returned my mom’s Singer to her. From what I know it’s probably still in the garage.
My next machine was the Singer featherweight purchased at Road2CA in January 2015. I love the look of the featherweight and the plan was to bring it with me to classes, workshops and retreats because of how little and light it is. I haven’t taken a class since and the last few workshops I’ve been to haven’t been conducive to a featherweight. The last sew in I went to, I convinced myself that I couldn’t use the featherweight because I couldn’t rely on the quarter inch to match my Bernina.
Soon after, I bought Bailey from a fellow blogger who had upgraded to a long arm I believe.
Then in May, the hubby gifted my some money and I bought the Brother embroidery machine for my Mother’s Day gift.