What sewing machines are good for quilting?
Free motion quilting is done by setting the machine for a straight stitch, dropping the feed dogs and moving the quilt by hand. Most other quilting is done with a plain straight stitch and raised feed dogs. The big problem is having enough space in the harp — the area to the right of the needle — to handle a big quilt, so you may want to look for a machine with a “large harp”, like the Juki TL-98Q. Look for machines that also have good needle punching force, to easily penetrate thick fabric sandwiches. Also look for needle up or needle down stopping features (handy to stop needle down, so you’ll restart at exactly the same spot, no wiggles) and see how easy it is to insert another bobbin while you’re in the middle of quilting something. Machine quilting 101: http://www.quilt.com/HowTo/MachineQuilti… http://www.quiltbug.com/Artic
