the Q24 Arrives

Jan. 5, 2015
Today my Christmas present arrived!  A brand new Bernina Q24 sewing machine.  Not only am I new to this machine, but this is one of the first machines in the hands of a customer - they just started to ship them from Switzerland.  SO I thought it would be fun to share my learning experiences.

First - a little about me - I have been quilting almost 35 years and a loyal Bernina customer for the last 25.  I usually quilt and piece on a Bernina 830, and lean towards traditional and landscape quilts.  I have some limited experience on true longarms - a computerized Statler Stitcher, and a regular Gammil, and owned the Bernina frame, made by Grace for several years before trading up to the Q24.

So why did I choose the Q24?  The Bernina name helped.  But there were 3 features I really liked: 1) it threads totally from the front.  I don't have to reach over the machine to start my thread from the back. 2) It has the ability to save profiles for different thread, complete with tension settings.  So if I know I always want a tension of 3 when working with metallic thread, I can set that and pull it up whenever I switch to metallic thread.  and 3) it has lights that run the full length of the long arm so I can easily see what I am doing.  I knew I would be using this in a fairly dark basement (although we have since added more lighting), so this seemed important.

My dealer installed the machine.  It took them about 4 hours yesterday.  It seemed very well-designed - with screws fitting nicely, pieces going together without any trouble and generally looking and feeling like a very sturdy piece of equipment.

Feet and legs can be adjusted to change the height and the level of the machine.  I was a little surprised they didn't try to do any custom adjusting to make the machine fit me.  There must be some basic guideline of the ideal place for the height of the machine is at your elbow (or above, or below, or…), but since I had no idea what that might be, and they didn't either, we just set ti to the height it came at.  And, so far, that doesn't seem to be too bad for me.  I am pretty much an average height person.

The handles adjust in multiple ways with levers that open up to loosen and close down to tighten.  This is probably easiest done with to people.  One to hold the handles where they feel best, and one to close down the levers, but I was able to do it myself.  I wished we had done it while the installers were still here, though.

Unfortunately, by the time they left it was dinner time, and I had a meeting to go to, so my laying with my new toy ended there.