Another "Addition"

Wow, dropped the ball again with blogging. :-(. So sorry!!  It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I've just been crafting away... Forgetting to document things.

Anywho, I have a new addition to my sewing machine family :-). Meet "Thor"....

He's my new Juki TL-2010Q and I LOVE him!!  Last week I had the opportunity to get him for a fabulous price and I just had to jump on it!  Now, he's not to replace any machine, but as an enhancement to what I have. Being a straight-stitch only machine with a great sized harp (amount of room from the needle to the side of the machine), I think I'm going to be able to quilt much faster and easier, not to mention more accurately. 

I love my "Rosie," and even though she has a 10" throat, she's only got 4" in height which made getting quilts thru her harp somewhat of a challenge. Lots of cramming and adjusting and frustration. Doing anything more than straight echo stitching in the body of the quilt was sometimes a real pain. I've only been able to do FMQ really on the borders because of the space issue. With the Juki, I don't see that being much of an issue. 

The other thing I love about him is he came with practically every foot I could need plus a generously sized extension table. No need to run out and purchase the accessories to do what I need him to do... He's good right out of the box!

I got him Friday and just couldn't wait to get to work!  Got him set up, figured out how to wind the bobbin and get him threaded, and I was off!  Grabbed some scrap fabric and just started going. I had some tension issues, but that could be because of the kind of thread I was using. After some finagling with the tension knobs, I finally think I got it :-)

Now, this being my first "industrial"-type machine, there was definitely a learning curve. 

• Speed - Oh yea!  So fast (1600 ditches per minute I think). Got him set at medium speed and so far that is working for me. I'm sure the high speed will be great for quilt piecing though, and chain stitching. 
• Auto Thread Cutter -Something I've never had on a machine before.  Took a while to get used to the rocking back of the foot petal to cut.  Kept cutting threads when I didn't mean to.  Lol.  After a few days of playing, I finally got the hang of it... and now I'm spoiled!  LOVE this feature!
• Knee Lift - Honestly, I thought this was going to be the greatest feature, but turns out... not so much.  At least for me.  I put the knee-lift on right away, and between that and the thread cutter on the foot petal... I was a mess.  I'm sure once I get the complete hang of the machine, the knee-lift will be a valuable lasset, but for now, it's being stored away.

Now, for the things I'm not quite liking....

• Lighting - This machine has some serious lighting issues.  Even with my OTT light on my desk, there is so much shadowing it's hard to see.  Thankfully, I saw on a bunch of blogs when I was doing research that there is a bit of a work-around.  I ended up buying a set of the Inspired LED lights off of Amazon and I think that will be the fix.  Haven't had a chance to install them, but that is on the list of things to do this week.  I think they'll definitely make a difference!
• One-Piece Presser Feet - This is something that I'm totally not used to, nor do I think I ever will be.  Instead of the snap-on feet like on the rest of my machines, this one has solid piece presser feet which require unscrewing in order to switch out.  I've been working on Bionic Bags over the past few days and having to keep switching between the regular foot and the zipper foot has proven to be a bit of a pain.  Not a huge deal-breaker, but still an annoyance.
• Walking Foot - It's awesome that they included a walking foot with the machine, however it takes some finagling to get it to work correctly.  First time I tried it, it made such an awful sound and I was afraid I was breaking something.  After further investigation, I found out that you're supposed to drop the pressure on the pressure foot and only go at about a medium pace.  That is supposed to be the fix for it.  Haven't tried that yet, but will definitely be doing that soon.

Other than that... I LOVE HIM!!!!  So happy with the purchase and can't wait to see how well I can do my quilting now.

Oh, and on his name..... Hubby totally named him.  Lol.  Since it was Hubby that pushed me to jump on the opportunity, I let him chose the name.  Told him it was going to be my workhorse machine, so he saw it fit to name him "Thor."   I was fine with that, so Thor it is :D

I've got LOTS of projects to share, and I'm going to attempt to get them posted here in the next week or so.  Been busy, busy, busy... I just need to remember to post :D

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday at A Quilt Story, and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts