Several of my quilting friends have Babylock machines and they love them. They mainly have them for machine quilting and are they fast!

I have the Esante and I love it. I've had it close to a year now and so far no problems.

Sue

Well, I just did some checking and it runs anywhere from $4700 to over $5000! I would have to do a lot of praying and a lot of saving to convince DH I need a $5,000 sewing machine. I only paid $750 for my Kenmore Elite, LOL.

Sue, do you use the embroidery as much as you thought you would?

Dee

I hope you can get one.

I have the Babylock new Espire and am crazy about it. (I didn't need a machine for embroidery, so I went for the Espire as cheaper, though it was still expensive.) I have had the Espire now for 14 months and it has not needed to go back to the dealer for fixing or tweaking in all that time. It is very fast, and I have successfully done my first meandering machine quilting on it.

In order to get it, my bargain with DH was that I would make this machine last me the rest of my life (unless it becomes non-repairable, of course). lol. I can't imagine myself wanting anything more in a machine than this one has.

Sometimes dealers sell machines under a year old that someone has traded in. It's a long shot, but you might find an Ellegante like that for a lot less. I got a great trade-in deal on my 10-month-old BLQC, and they presumably resold it at a reduced price to someone else--after fixing it up really nice.

Yes I do use the embroidery. I'm just doing a pillow in Dupionne silk with a Jacobean bird embroidered on the front. It looks great. It's so easy, you just sit there and watch it. All I have to do is change the thread colours when it asks me to. It's brought a whole other dimension to my sewing. As to price, imagine how I feel, I bought mine here in Canada last year. With the current dollar exchange I could have saved almost $1,000 if I'd bought it in Seattle. That would have been a lot of thread. Anyway it's well worth saving up for.

Sue

I have a Janome 9000 but just bought the Babylock Espire at the quilt show. I am supposed to get it by the 25th. If it lives up to the demo I know I am going to love it. I sewed on it for a while and was VERY impressed with the even stitches while doing free motion. I couldn't have had a better deal. 50% off because it had been used in the Elenor Burns workshop for about 9hrs.with all the warrenty's intack. I decided it had been tested for problems.
Jayne

You sure got a bargain, Jayne! And I'm sure you'll love it.

I decided this machine is way out of my price range (for right now). Maybe next year it will come down in price. In the meantime, I'll be looking for a better sewing machine that gives me faster speed.

Jayne, you got a great deal!

Devonne

I know this sounds horrible but look for shops going out of business. My MIL just got a babylock for 1/2 price by doing that.

Also, watch for a quilt show in your area where they are using those machines in a class. They were offering that deal at Road2CA last year. I don't know if it was 505 off like Jayne's, but it seemed like it was a good price.
Sye

Someone recommended that I go to the Atlanta Sewing Expo. May try that next year as I've never been before.