Thank you, Dawn - you make excellent points. I think it might be much the same with me. I would keep my old Janome QDC, maybe eventually replacing it with something more up to date. And, with either the Destiny or Crescendo, both are much too large (IMO) to haul around to classes. The Brother dealer in my area is about 40 miles away or so, while the BL dealer is about 1 mile, so I think that will be a factor in my decision. If I decide to do two separate machines, however, I might need to look at Brother embroidery machines that do Disney designs. Thanks for your help and if you think of anything else, please let me know!

To be honest, I had never thought about getting two separate machines. I don't do that much embroidery, but do a LOT of sewing. My very old Janome Memorycraft 9000 pretty much quit on me, so I went looking to replace it. Like you, I looked at the Berninas, then the Janomes, but when I walked past the Brother, I was in awe! And, I was sold!

Yes, it might be nice to have two separate machines, but I have found that I am either in the embroidery mood, or the sewing mood. I'm not sure I would be doing both at once. And, if you are doing intricate embroidery, it pretty much needs you right there to change out the thread colors, sometimes every minute or two. The picture below had 50 thread changes. Many stitched for just a minute or two. (When a 20 minute stitch out came, I finally fixed lunch.)


Also, I did win a smaller BabyLock BL9 in a local quilt contest. It's value is around $300. If I need to sew while the embroidery function is engaged on my Brother, I can do perfect piecing with it. It is my go-to machine for retreats and classes. Much lighter wieight. I don't like moving my Dream Machine around!

Dawn

Are you happy that you went with the combo machine or would you rather have had two separate machines? The only thing I'm afraid of with a combo machine is that I will want to sew on the new machine while it's embroidering and won't want to use my old machine! But the TOL machines seem to have a lot of features that even two machines wouldn't give me. Do you sew or embroider more?

I have the Brother version of the Destiny. Mine is called the Dream Machine. The chassis is identical, both have the scanner, large touch screen, camera, laser line, etc. The only difference between the two is the embroidery software that is in the machines. I bought the Brother because it is loaded with lots and lots of Disney embroidery characters. I have already used many for my granddaughters. The scanner comes in handy for centering an embroidery. Or placing wording into an embroidery or centering into a quilt block. I use the embroidery alphabets for all of my quilt labels. I chose the Brother because it was $3500 less than the Destiny, which was on sale at my LQS. There are many things that I have not tried on my machine yet, but it sews like a dream, quilts like a dream, and is super easy to do embroidery. I suggest you try both, see what kind of a deal you can get on each, and go from there.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the Destiny/Brother, and I'll try to answer them. A lot of quilter's will only buy a machine from a place where they are impressed with the person who will be servicing it. That's a biggie for some. I have heard horror stories about every dealer here locally (along with the good) so I took that consideration out of the equation. It doesn't seem to matter who services my machine. They all have good days and bad days.

if I have to leave my machine for a period of a couple of hours or so, it just goes to sleep. When I come back, I touch the screen and it is right where I left off. Love that feature! And, it has a good memory, for storing the exact tension, stitch length etc, that you used for that perfect stitch the last time! I could go on and on, but you really need to play with them!!!!!!

Dawn

Does anyone have experience on the Babylock Destiny? I've been looking at TOL machines recently and if I decide to go with a combo machine, this is definitely in the mix. I know that there are benefits to having two separate machines, but the Destiny seems to have advantages in terms of software, as far as I can tell. I still haven't taken it for a test drive, but Babylock machines are getting mostly positive reviews as far as I can tell. I'm mainly a quilter (piecing mostly, but like the idea of having more room to the right of the needle for quilting throws, etc) I've never done machine embroidery, but I can see doing some in the future for (hopefully) future grandchildren, as well as some home dec projects and quilt squares. Also monogramming is very big in my part of the world, and I'd love that ability. Also want to expand my garment sewing capabilities and maybe smaller home dec projects. I love the idea of the built-in scanner, but since I really don't know much about machine embroidery, is that really necessary? And I'm also concerned about software, since my home computer is a Macbook. Apart from the Destiny, I'm looking at the Crescendo with a stand-alone embroidery machine. And finally, I haven't totally ruled out the comparable Janome machines, or even Bernina, totally - people seem to either have a perfect Bernina or a lemon, as far as I can tell. And frankly, it just doesn't seem that you get as much for your money. I'm not someone who sews everyday, or as a business. Any input would be greatly appreciated! It's a very large purchase, whichever I go with, and I want to get it right! If you're a Destiny owner, in particular, please speak up!