I joined the Viking Designer SE group on Yahoo and some people there, as
well as on h-costume, gave me a lot of info.
The new TOL (top-of-the-line) Viking machine coming out in June is
widely rumored to have the same large embroidery field as the latest TOL
Pfaff, which if true would make the Viking the machine of choice for me.
People are also saying that new Viking models always have a variety of
software and sometimes hardware bugs that need to be worked out. For the
software bugs and some new features, you download software fixes
yourself. For the hardware bugs, you have to take the machine back to
your dealer.
San Francisco itself seems to have a shortage of Viking dealers. People
have recommended a good dealer in Sunnyvale, and another one in Marin
County. Those are places I can get to but not conveniently enough to
want to do it a lot, plus there is the time issue of dealing with the
upgrades/fixes. I can do it, but I have a computer to keep updated as it
is.
Anyway, people are saying that unless you are burning to have the new
model right away, it is wise to wait awhile, anywhere from 4 1/2 months
to a year. The time recommended seems to depend on your level of
optimism, the machine, and what you hear about its problems from early
adopters. When buying computer software and hardware my philosophy has
always been to wait for a fairly stable version. So I think I will wait
maybe six months, depending on what I hear about any problems with the
new model.
Many people say it is handy to have two machines, one set up for
embroidery and one for sewing, and also to sew on one machine while the
other embroiders. So I think I will keep my old Viking as long as it
continues to work well. I have not found in the past that trade-ins
really take that much off the price of the new machine. There is, BTW, a
surprising number of people who not only love the TOL Vikings but own
two identical ones at once, which they keep upgrading to the latest and
greatest, and a TOL serger in addition. I suppose if you did a large
amount of machine embroidery it might make sense to have two machines
embroidering away.
My husband and I have been planning to buy a larger house for a couple
of years at least, a project that keeps getting derailed by the fact
that he's been working 60 hours a week for years. However, although I
already have a sewing room all across the back of the house, it's not
large enough to put another machine in, considering the stacks of books
all over the floor. So one thing I will get is a larger sewing room.
Both my parents died fairly recently and I have to decide if, among
other things, I want to take my mother's antique treadle cabinet as part
of my share of the estate. I already have an antique treadle cabinet
with the fold-out panel that my parents bought me years ago. I took the
machine out and had the cabinet fixed up as a solid tabletop and put my
Viking on top of it. My father fixed up my mother's cabinet the same
way, for her to put her machine on. I love these cabinets and the
fold-out panels but, are the machines with the big embroidery fields too
large to fit on the surface, especially if I want the fold-out to be
available to support long skirts while I am sewing on them?
Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com
snip
Pfaff currently has the largest hoop; however there is a new machine on the
horizon and Husqvarna is coming out with in June, so we have to see what
that is!!
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