Hi Hanne,
I'm the proud owner of y Pfaff 2046, and I'm happy with it ( I have it
4 months now )
But as I never had a knee lift, I can't telll if it's essential.
As other's already mentionend the indicator for an empty bobbin is
great and our Roberta found a method to wind it up until it's really
full.
I looked at Bernina too, but I took the Pfaff for 2 personal
reasons , one is my old one is a Pfaff too and it worked great for
20 years, the second reason is, that it's a German Company,
though I know, the machines are manufactored in others countrys.
But what was another important point for me was, that the
additional items ( bobbins, feets and so on ) of Pfaff are a lot
cheaper than the Bernina's ( at least here in Germany ).
And the IDT-System really works great !!!

But as others told you too, the decision is a personal one, and
I never heard of anyone not to be happy with a Bernina.

Have fun deciding and trying and playing...
Heidi from Germany

Hanne Gottliebsen schrieb:

So I'm still using my $170 WalM**t machine for all my sewing + quilting,
and it is doing fine (ok at least), although sometimes it is a bit
stupid about choice of thread and things like that.

For the last year I have been eyeing a Bernina 153QE, but since I was
moving from the US to Europe, it was cheaper to wait and get it here
(that might not be true right now, due to the change in exchange rate,
but never mind - I want to spend the money where I can get the service
too). Just before Christmas my Mum got a Pfaff 2044 (Quilt Expression) -
she never quilted in her life. Well, I now get to go home and play with
it for 2 weeks.

So I thought I'd have a look around here, and the never version (with
the extension table etc) sells for the same as the bernina around here.
Now, the Bernina has a knee lift, which I thought might be nice, but the
Pfaff has a warning light for the bobbin running low on thread, and that
I _know_ would save me grief. The Pfaff also has two alphabets, I don't
think the Bernina has any.

Those of you who has a machine with a knee lift, do you use it? I do a
lot of free motion quilting (not that I'm good, but I'm practising :-)

Or is the perfect machine with both these two out there somewhere (still
in production, please)?


Right now I'm thinking if I like the Pfaff (after 2 weeks I should be
able to tell), that's what I'll go for, unless you all tell me I _must_
have that knee lift????


Thanks
Hanne - now in London

Heidi from Germany

http:\\hbquilts.bei.t-online.de
mail: please remove quilt from address