Love My Juki!

I know everyone is just waiting on pins and needles to hear another sewing machine review, but I just have to share about the Juki TL 2010Q. During COVID-19, 2020, I was coerced into making quilts as a hobby; I had sewn since I was nine and could make a skirt or pair of pants. However, quilting was on an entirely different plane. I started crocheting again temporarily, but I just needed more. I purchased two books on Amazon by Jera Branvig about quilts as you go. If I were going to do this thing, I would learn it all by piecing, quilting, and binding it. I wanted to complete the entire quilt; I have always been an all-or-nothing kind of girl (age 60 now). Ha. My office manager at my new job was Kathie, an avid quilter; she is a very good piecer and much more detail-oriented than myself, she took me to Joanne’s and introduced me to Jelly Rolls, layer cakes, charm packs, and fat quarters. This is a new language for me. I was hoping we were going to a bakery at first.

Well, I had a 12-year-old brother sewing machine I had given to my mom, and I had just moved back after 27 years to take care of her, so I pulled it out of the closet. I purchased some batting and started studying my Quilt as You Go book. It was pretty intense. I decided on some Paris Theme jelly rolls I purchased at Hobby Lobby (I didn’t know about quilt shops) and some warm and natural batting, as the book’s author had stated it was top-notch; my theory was to go big or go home. I picked out a pattern that was a 13×13 batting square and started sewing those jelly roll strips at a 45-degree angle from the middle.

Well, I quickly learned about the throat space on a sewing machine and its importance. Honestly, I had no idea that was a thing, I had never heard of a longarm at this time, boy I was in for an adventure. I started making my squares and decided to make a queen size to go on my bed, never one to start small. I sewed for weeks, and quilted lines on the squares, quilting as I went. All was going well until I started trying to join a queen-size quilt on a 5-inch-inch throat space, but I was hooked on this quilting thing, and now, I needed relief. HMMM, there has to be a better machine for this. I started studying new machine models under the price range of 1000; my priority was throat space and a good quality no, bones straight stitch. After all, I was now a seasoned quilter.

That first queen taught me quite a bit, and by the time I finished and started the second one, I was the proud owner of the Juki. Let’s continue there. As I have learned, there is always something bigger and better, with more bells and whistles.

Kathie and I went to a fabric store one Saturday for a quail. We had made a friend for a housewarming present and we needed it longarmed, Oh My! My! What an impressive beast that longarm was. This store was also a Juki dealer and had a special on a top-of-the-line computerized Juki HZL-NX7 Quilting Machine, so I talked Kathie into buying my beloved TL2010 and loaded that baby in the car.
Colossal Mistake: Although I liked the new machine, it didn’t feel like home; after about six months of sewing on that fancy machine, I had had enough. I just purchased another TL2010. I don’t know what the magic of that straight stitch Juke is, but most people who own one will know what I am talking about. Four Years later, I now have longarm part-time and own a fancy quilting embroidery machine, but my Juki is my favorite and will always be my go-to sewing machine.

My Juki will sew through anything. It has a 9-inch throat space, so I can free-motion quilt with it. It is reliable and easy to maintain. I highly recommend this machine and always tell everyone that if I had to start over without any equipment tomorrow, a Juki TL2010 would be my first purchase.