I am thinking of buying a new sewing machine.
First, I am going to get my 6600 serviced, of course, but I have had it for ~8 years and I have put in a lot of hours on the machine. Kelly had it before me for ~7 years. It should last longer. It is struggling, however, with the thickness of the materials I use when I make bags. Since I don’t think I will stop making bags, I need to see what I can do to fix this situation.
Cyndi offered me the loan of her Juki to try out. While this searching process won’t be quick, I decided to take Cyndi up on her offer while I had the time and the opportunity.
I have long admired the ease with which Sara, of Sew Sweetness, navigates her bag making on her videos. I am sure she doesn’t put the swearing and problems in the videos, so I have to remember that no machine is a panacea.
This won’t be a full on review. You can find those in other places on the web. I am just going to share my impressions.

Since I had a bag on which to work rather than just a quilt, I spent Saturday trying out Cyndi’s Juki. A lot of people in the guild have Jukis and love them. I have heard a few people have gotten lemons. However, I think that most people love them, but a few people struggle with various problems.
The machine is a straight stitch only machine, so that is something to consider. I do need to satin stitch/zigzag for machine applique’ and some zigzag for making bags. I also like using the stitch letters on my Janome.

First of all, I really liked the stitch quality on thick lumps of fabric. I also noticed that the foot stayed relatively even while sewing a zipper tab. This doesn’t happen on my Janome. The foot is at a big angle and I know that makes the machine work harder and more poorly, which, in turn, reduces the quality of the stitch.
I had a problem with sewing on zipper tabs on the Superbloom. The problem was on the bottom and we couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the number of layers of fabric since I sewed the zipper tab with no problem. I had to do some ripping and left those pieces to work on at home. That is something I’ll need to ask about if I decide on a Juki.
My 6600 has a large harp, but the Juki’s harp was higher and I noticed that I had more space to maneuver. It was really nice to have some extra vertical space.

One of the things I have been thinking about is the foot. I like the idea of sometimes being able to use the edge of the foot as a guide without having to use a foot with the lip I normally use. In this case, Cyndi’s foot was not exactly 1/4″, so I couldn’t try that out. She said Juki does have a quarter inch foot. They also have a 1/4 inch foot with a lip, which would be great.
I was a little surprised by the complicated threading the Juki requires. I was turned off by the need to oil the machine. Cyndi said it was easy, but I don’t know.
Other than the above, I haven’t looked at any other features or reviews. I’ll gather information and we’ll see what happens.