So, you may recall a couple posts ago I shared that my husband told me he was buying me a larger quilting sewing machine for Christmas.  Something that should enable me to quilt larger than a twin size like my current machine.  So once we got back, with budget in hand, I got down to sorting through possible machines.

One of the things that I wish would change about the sewing realm is that there is a sincere lack of pricing information.  To be honest, its a bit like car shopping wherein you can find all manner of details about the features and functions but the majority of pricing is “call for details”

So I scribbled out a few notes on which machines had good reviews, what the workspace (aka harp space or throat space) was and decided I’d take a trip to the local sewing shop where I bought my last machine and see what they had and probably a trip to a sewing expo in February before I made my final decision.

At least that was the plan.

So yesterday we went into the shop and took a look around.  There was a nice BabyLock Aria right at my budget, and the Juki I had been thinking about and a pair of nice Janome machines, though based on my online searching I figured these were out of my budget range.  But again… there aren’t really much in the way of prices when sewing machine shopping, so we asked anyway.

Turns out they were actually selling their floor model Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900 QCP!  Complete with the additional remote thread cutting foot that is usually extra.  So instead of looking… we did some buying.

Numerous feet, including accufeed (like a walking foot) and multiple variations on free motion feet as well as the extension table.  The 11 inch workspace is a nice step up from my prior machine.

Here they are side by side for scale.

 My husband’s comment upon seeing them side by side was that he didn’t realize in the shop just how much bigger the new machine was. And its not just the machine… one of my adjustments is getting used to how much larger the foot pedal is, when the much smaller thread cutter pedal is about the size of my old machine’s pedal.

The thread spool and numerous feet are stored under the top cover with the bobbin winder and the lid doubles as a handy quick reference to the stitches.

I’ve done a bit of piecing with it today, played with some stitches and wound a bobbin.  And she sews like a champ!

Now I just need to get my sewing room better organized!