Now I want the Pfaff Creative Performance!

I know it's a big change of mind. I wanted Brother Quattro or Dreamweaver XE. I also wanted a 6 needle. I couldn't decide. My budget is about 5000-8000 dollars, depending how sweet my talk to hubby is, on condition that I will not ask for any gifts in the next three years (doesn't mean I am not going to buy anything for myself, heeheeheee).

Ideally I would want a machine with multiple needles (10 plus) with capabilities to do caps, pant legs, tote bags etc. But I cannot afford a 10 needle right now. As for the hoop, the larger the better. I am not too happy with the 8 *12 hoop provided by Brother.

I could also use a nicer sewing machine (I only have a basic Janome). What I would really love is some nice stitches that I can use for heirloom sewing. Continuous border with embroidery hoop is time consuming and lining up the designs can be a challenge. Of course the embroidery border designs are usually fancier than the decorative stitches on the sewing unit, but sometimes you just want to simply keep sewing and have a nice simple border. I would also love more decorative stitches for crazy quilting.

All that being said, I have to find a machine that best suits my needs within my budget. I cannot afford a 10 needle and I know I would regret if I get a 6 needle now. I always do when I don't go for what I really want and settle for less. The less expensive thing end up being a waist because I still want the better thing.

I accidentally found out the Pfaff has really large hoops (360 *350mm) and large hoops are on the top of my wish list. I've heard wonderful things about Pfaff machines, so I decided to pay a visit to a dealer. I found a dealer selling both Brother and Pfaff. So my friend Jane drove me there. It was 1 hour round trip. Thank you Jane!

After talking to the wonderful lady at the dealership about Brother Quattro, Dreamweaver XE and Pfaff Creative Performance, I am REALLY impressed with the PCP.

It does not have all the "bells and whistles" that Brother top of line machines have, but the following features basically, almost sold the machine to me.

1. Of course the large embroidery area. It comes with 200*360mm and the 350 *360 is optional for 230 dollars minus 20% discount.

2. The walking foot that built into the machine. It's new to me but I guess it's been there for 30 plus years. You can snap on zipper foot, embroidery foot, piping foot on and they all work with the walking foot, making feeding fabrics really smooth.

3. The ease switching between the sewing and embroidery. You can leave the embroidery unit on for both and when you need to switch, you do not need to unscrew anything, you just snap the embroidery foot on the walking foot (don't know how they call it). It is literally seconds to switch. How nice is that! That means it will do a wonderful job doing ITH projects that involve multiple layers.

4 The positioning seems to be pretty easy and accurate. It's unlike Brother's camera and snowman, but it's a good system.

5. The price! The dealer says the best price they can give is 4999. That's a lot less than Dreamweaver XE (6999 maybe 6499?) or Quattro (8499).

The only thing that I do not like about the PCP is the threader. It doesn't have the automatic threader. It has a pretty primitive threader.

Also it does not trim the bobbin thread. It only trims the top thread.

No machine is perfect (the perfect machine's price wouldn't be perfect). I think the pros outweigh the cons.

I am going back to Michigan tomorrow. And I will go to the Viking in Joann's a block away to check out the Viking Diamond. I don't think I'll like that more than PCP though.

There's a sewing expo in Novi, Michigan this September. I'll probably buy my machine after that.

p.s. It seems that Pfaff just had a big sale "buy one get one for one penny plus 150 dollars rebate" in March. People could get the PCP for 3999 and the large embroidery unit for 1 penny plus 150 dollars rebate. That's 1150 dollars plus tax less than the deal I am getting. Do you cuties know whether that's an annual event?

Thank you for your input!