The Best Tools: Brother 10-Needle

A fellow member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild wanted to sell her Brother 10-Needle embroidery machine. I've wanted a multi-needle embroidery machine since I started using my Pfaff Creative Performance more often. A single needle machine is fine if you do designs with few colors, but if you want to make more than one of a thing, or designs with several colors, changing threads can be a full-time job. There are tricks you can use when creating, or combining designs, but you still have to change the thread for every color change. This was a deal I couldn't pass up.

Gettng this monster home was no easy task. This machine weighs in around 90+ pounds. Definitely a two-peep carry. Thankfully, I brought along my darling husband to be the second peep. We went back and forth on where to put the darn thing, because while the footprint isn't huge, it is larger than the desktop I was using for the Pfaff Creative Performance. I had this IKEA table I had intended to use for standing and sewing. That standing and sewing didn't seem to materialize, though it did collect more than a few things on and around it. We moved all the collected stuff and moved it into the next room where I could plug it into a protected outlet on my conditioner/UPS. I use the same one to protect my desktop computer and my long arm.

There isn't much space between the long arm frame and that table but the machine fits and I can get my behind between the two.

Because I couldn't think about anything else, I made a mess of my workspace and got to stitching. This was pretty much the state of my cutting table for about a week.

I made this fun hand-sanitizer holder that looks sort of like a baseball (design from Designs by Little Bee). That may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but telling the machine which of those 10 needles you want it to use for each step isn't as simple as one would think. I learned so much making this. I'll be making more, and learning more.

I will get around to putting a couple things in my Etsy shop at some point. Right now it is a somewhat lonely place with a couple dice bags just hanging out waiting for someone to want them.