Is a knee lift essential?

Hanne Gottliebsen wrote:
Those of you who has a machine with a knee lift, do you use it?

I have machine quilted one baby quilt. I would have been very very
unhappy without my knee lift.
I do more garment sewing than anything, and the knee lift is one of my
two favorite things about my machine. That and the positive needle up/down.
When my knee-lift machine is in the shop for maintainence, I whine and
grumble about having no knee lift.

liz young in sunny california

I've seen a kneelift attachment online and would love to know if anyone
here's tried it. I don't know the website offhand, but am sure I found it
with a Google search... If I remember right, it was about $75.

--Heidi

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b

In article ,
"..Mickie Swall.." wrote:

It's been suggested that the confusion abates if one uses the left
foot for the go-pedal and the right knee for the lift. Never had a
machine to test this, but a body could probably re-adjust the
mind set with a little practice.
Mickie (who's next machine will Definately have a knee-lift presserfoot)


I do exactly that, Mickie. g Of course, I'm left-footed, so it makes
sense....
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

In article ,
Marcella Tracy Peek wrote:


I've honestly never had a machine with the low bobbin alert, so I can't
truly say if I would think it wonderful or not.

Same here, Marcella. However, my Bernina has a slightly different sound
when I'm sewing with an almost-empty bobbin, so that's my warning. g
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

I dearly love to hear about who's sewing on what. Thank you, Heidi, for
asking. I was particularly interested in the response to low bobbin
indicator. I'm with Sandy. My Bernie and I are so in tune that I can hear
when her bobbin is getting low.
Something you may not have picked up on: Some SMs have to be unthreaded
to wind a bobbin. Now that would really be annoying. Be sure you don't get
one of those. Grrrrr. Polly

I don't have the knee pedal anymore (well, I do, but it's in storage), but I
do use my left foot for sewing and my right foot for quilting. Don't know
why, I just do.

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
de-fang email address to reply


"..Mickie Swall.." wrote in message
...
It's been suggested that the confusion abates if one uses the left
foot for the go-pedal and the right knee for the lift. Never had a
machine to test this, but a body could probably re-adjust the
mind set with a little practice.
Mickie (who's next machine will Definately have a knee-lift presserfoot)


I had that same problem Wendy. I went to work in a sewing factory
briefly and the industrial machines there had knee lifts and I'd never
sewn
on anything but a knee lever operated machine. It nearly drove me nuts.
lol
Shelly

snipped............. I couldn't get the
hang of it - for 20 years I sewed on a machine with a knee pedal, so
instead
of making the machine go, it confused me when it lifted the presser foot!
Wendy

I would die without my knee lift. Seriously, I feel that it is essential.
Along with the needle up/needle down function.
I'm not familiar with the Bernina 153 version, but I have a 1630, and that
does in fact have the low bobbin indicator (but it doesn't help unless you
actually LOOK at the screen LOL). So you might find that the 153 does have
the indicator. Also with the Alphabet, the 1630 has one (or two?) so the
153 might too. Best suggestion is to go to various dealers and sew on all
of the different machines you are considering. It might be helpful to make
yourself a little chart/checklist with all the features you might want
across the top and then list the machines down the side so that you can do a
side by side comparison of the features. One of the quilting magazines does
this on a fairly regular basis, so if you have some back issues of Quilters
Newsletter it might be helpful to check those for this info.
Hope this helps a little bit.
Have fun shopping!
Tracey in CT

"Hanne Gottliebsen" wrote in message
...
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

Hi Emilia,

Cross-Atlantic: Well, I live in the UK now, and will be here for at
least 3 years (barring something major happening), and home is Denmark,
so any electrical items I get here would work in the rest of Europe
(Western at least). As for the US: I'm sure I read in the spec for the
Pfaff that it is dual voltage, but I know that the Berninas sold in the
Us are not. That's why I didn't get a Bernina last year while still in
the state, since I would need a new power supply or whatever for it
(although those can be bought from Bernina according to me LQS in Virginia).

Funnily enough, my el-cheapo sewing machine is not dual voltage, but
does cope with 50 - 60 Hz, so with a cheap transformer I can use it here
it Europe. But I think it is from Japan, maybe that's why?

Hanne



Emilia wrote:
Hi Hanne.

I've been eyeing that Bernia as well! It's a bit too expensive for me at
the moment though so I'll still keep eyeing!

My only question is whether you can take a machine from one continent to
the other? Isn't there an issue with differences in electrical currents? Or
is it like computers where they take that into acount when making the
machines?

As for the knee lift: I don't have one but I sure did liked it when I test
drove the Bernina!

Nice to have? Yes. Essential?? Probably not....

Emilia

Sandy Foster wrote:
In article ,
Marcella Tracy Peek wrote:



I've honestly never had a machine with the low bobbin alert, so I can't
truly say if I would think it wonderful or not.


Same here, Marcella. However, my Bernina has a slightly different sound
when I'm sewing with an almost-empty bobbin, so that's my warning. g

Well, it wouldn't be _just_ for that. It also has lots of other good
features :-) However, when stippling large spaces I always seem to run
out of bobbin thread in just the wrong spots... For piecing, I don't
think it would make any difference for me at all.

Hanne

Polly Esther wrote:

I dearly love to hear about who's sewing on what. Thank you, Heidi, for
asking. I was particularly interested in the response to low bobbin
indicator. I'm with Sandy. My Bernie and I are so in tune that I can hear
when her bobbin is getting low.
Something you may not have picked up on: Some SMs have to be unthreaded
to wind a bobbin. Now that would really be annoying. Be sure you don't get
one of those. Grrrrr. Polly

I don't HAVE to unthread, but frequently do... Or rather, I wind
several bobbins before starting to sew! It's funny how different things
bother different people! Re-threading has never bothered me.
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
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