The Best Tools: Juki

I've been looking at a few of the straight stitch only machines for a while now. There are a couple that were very similar and I thought I might like for piecing and bag making. One was the Brother 1500 (series). The other was the Juki TL-2010Q.

In the end it came down to which one popped up on social media with a good sale. Another maker in a group on social media shared a Massdrop link to the Juki. It was a good price (about $120 less than Amazon) so I decided to go for it.

There was some suspense while waiting for it to be delivered. UPS challenged my calm the entire way. It came a couple days later than expected but came in one glorious piece. If you are someone that moves around a great deal, and has the room to store such things, you might want to hold onto the packing materials.

Here is the Juki unboxed. This is not a cheap, plastic machine. I was pleasantly surprised by the weight of this machine. I might discuss the features in more detail in another post, but I can cover the features that sold me on this model.

• It stitches up to 1500 stitches per minute (my Pfaff can't do that).
• It has needle up/needle down
• It has thread cutter, and I'm not talking about the little cutter on the side of the machine. It has a thread cut button and if you rock back on the speed controller it will cut the thread.
• Speed control from turtle to rabbit
• Knee lift
• Includes (not shown) an extension table to support your work.
• Accommodates a cone of thread, which means I don't need my thread stand any more 

I put it in place of my Pfaff machine. That doesn't mean I won't use the Pfaff anymore, just that I will be using this machine as my everyday piecing machine. It includes a walking foot, two free-motion feet, and five bobbins (which isn't nearly enough in my opinion). 

To test it out, I stitched up a charity quilt for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. I was very pleased with the performance of the machine. It never missed a beat.

It did set up some vibrations on my table, which made one of my project boards fall and spill its contents. Those tiny pieces will become something, I promise. Now, if you will excuse me, I have things to sew.

Juki TL-2010Q