The Sewing Mom

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We have family visiting from out of town, so I haven’t spent too much time on the computer this weekend. But, I have to tell you that I was at Joann’s fabric store today and checked out some new sewing machines.

Now, I really don’t need a new sewing machine, mine is only about 6 years old. But, I can’t help myself when I see the new machines, I start to drool. I really drool whenever they’re not busy in the Viking/Husqvarna shop inside of Joanns and I can get them to show me the latest machine on the market. Today it was the “Ruby”, a heavily enhanced embroidery/sewing machine that does anything you might imagine and has over 1000 different stitches to choose from! I am always tempted, but I’m not sure yet what type of machine I want. You see, I all ready have a sewing machine that also does embroidery, the down side is that my embroidery software was lost in our last relocation and I have yet to find it. Then, my computer crashed and I lost what was loaded on my computer, so I really haven’t been able to use my embroidery for the last year or so. I do all of my sewing on that machine though and it works very well, except when I want to do any machine quilting. I’ve never been very fond of the way it quilts. It’s tough to get the tension right and the sewing bed itself isn’t that big so it can be difficult to maneuver the layers of the quilt through the machine.

So, the truth is, while I would love to have a fancy new machine, I’m also not ready (and not sure if I ever will be) to spend $6000 on this one that I saw today!

I stopped in at the Viking Sewing Gallery the other day. I had sort of been avoiding the store because I just knew that if I saw the latest addition to its sewing/embroidery machine line up that I would be wanting one. The new Designer Diamond was introduced only a few short weeks ago and I have to say, it’s the biggest, non-professional machine I’ve seen.

For anyone that is interested in embroidery on pillows, bedding, or large items, this is definitely the machine for you. It accommodates the largest embroidery hoop out there. It truly is an amazing machine. But, for the selling price of over $8,000, it won’t be on my wish list. I found it to be too large, a bit overwhelming. I do use my machine to embroider, but I don’t find a need for anything as big as the Designer Diamond.

Instead, I will continue to pine for the Designer SE. These two machines have almost identical features, remember, the SE came out not too long before the Diamond. Yes, there are differences, but for me, the SE would be all I would ever need. I am looking into used machines, but I don’t know if anything will happen anytime soon. People are trading in their SE’s to get the new Diamond and I will keep my eye out on what is out there. I have owned my Platinum for almost 2 years now, so the trade in value isn’t too high. I might do better to sell it on my own, but that can also be a hassle. First, I’m going to get it in for a good cleaning and then I will think about it.