I went to my dealer in Waterford on tuesday. A very pleasant 2 hour drive down the east coast of Ireland with DH driving there and back. John who runs the Singer Sewing Centre in Waterford is such a nice person and his Mammy works in the shop too. It is a tiny shop on the corner of a very busy crossroads right in the centre of town. We got there at 10am and already the shop was buzzing with people coming and going with machines which John seemed to be able to fix within minutes - sergers, hemmers etc.
I brought two quilt sandwiches and lots of different threads and needles just in case. John very thoroughly looked at my machine and felt confident that he could fix all the problems but he couldn't get my problem thread to work either - even after trying several needles and tensions so he declared the thread unsuitable for the machine.
We tried all the different threads I brought with me which all worked fine and I have now converted John to Superior Metallic and Aurifil thread which he says he is going to order for the shop. He couldn't get over how good they were.
Meanwhile I started trying out the Horizon - at which point DH headed off with Betsy (our one-eyed dog!) for a walk around the town (it's officially a city but really it's a large town for Ireland). I tried out as many feet as I could on my two quilt sandwiches and other fabric I had brought with me to try. I loved everything about it. It is so quiet, so smooth, easy to use (okay the screwing and unscrewing of feet and FMQ attachment is a bit fiddly - but worth it! Then John suggested I try my problem thread to see if it would work. So I did. Without changing my tension or needle it worked perfectly in FMQ!
John popped out to a nearby bakery to get some fresh scones for his mammy to have with the cup of tea which I was offered too! I worked away on the Horizon messing about on my quilt sandwiches. When he returned we had a little sit down chat about trading in my machine and what I would expect to pay for the Horizon. He made me a much more attractive offer than I thought he would, so I said that I would go off and have a coffee with DH and we would discuss it. Meanwhile he moved on to my friend Ruth's machine which I had also brought down to be fixed.
When I met up with DH he said he only had to see my face to know that I loved the machine so when I told him what it would cost with the trade-in he said "you should just get it". So I did! I LOVE THIS MACHINE
It works like a dream. It does free motion quilting so smoothly I can't believe how hard I struggled on my chocolate quilt. I wish I had made this decision two weeks ago. My quilting would have been soooo much better on that quilt. I made buttonholes for the first time last night - it was a breeze.
I am now a very happy quilter. Thanks everybody for all your comments about the Horizon it really helped with the decision.
Meanwhile poor Ruth's machine had to stay for major repairs
Because it's a Brother John has to wait for parts from them before he can fix it but he is sure that he can get her the full range of stitches back. She had been reduced to forward and reverse and all the other stitches were stitching backwards!