The Q20 and the Great Customer Service from G Street Fabrics

Yesterday my friend and Bernina dealer Mei Ling Huang and my wonderful machine tech Lew, who work from G Street Fabrics in Rockville Maryland, came and spent the day with me.  Putting together the pieces of the Koala cabinet that came with my Q20 took longer than setting up the Q20.  All of it is heavy, and so my son David helped with some of the necessary lifting.  It all fit just where I thought it would, and it looks fabulous.

After it was all set up, they spent some time with me teaching me what I needed to know in the care and feeding of my new machine, which I have named “Fritz” after the founder of Bernina and also after a favorite fictional character of mine..Nero Wolfe’s chef Fritz (pronounced Freetz, which is the way I’m pronouncing my new machine’s name).  Both Fritz’s were wildly successful and talented, so it seems a great name for the new big boy machine.

The weather was wonderfully cooperative.  I put together a light lunch and we all stopped for a short time and had lunch on the back deck.  After they left in the late afternoon, I was able to spend a couple of hours trying it all out.  The whole day was a delight for me.

Today I put together the Bernina chair that they included for me in the deal, and spent the day getting used to the machine.  In fact, I found that it was so wonderfully easy to quilt with that after a few hours, I finished the quilting on my Hoffman challenge 2016 quilt, and it is ready for the binding, blocking and beading.

So I have now spent about six hours quilting on this machine, or at least playing on this machine.  I have only one minor complaint.  You have to use the foot peddle to quilt with it.  For the Bernina 830 (“Gibbs”), I can punch a button and leave my foot off the peddle for the stitch regulator modes.  I’ll bet they can fix that with a software update.  I’m going to write to Bernina and suggest it.

At first, I thought the machine was not as smooth to run as I had initially found with my try-outs.  But after I fiddled with the various controls a bit, I found it runs so much smoother than anything I’ve tried to date.  The stitches from the stitch regulator mode are so perfectly even, and it can keep up with me.  I don’t have to hold back, but can quilt as fast or as slowly as I want to.  There are absolutely no skipped stitches and they are so very even and beautiful.

It is clear to me already that Fritz will help me to quilt better, faster, and more accurately. Soon I will post pictures of my studio and some quilting.

I thank G Street and the Bernina section there for such great customer service.  If you are a Bernina owner (or want to be) and live within striking distance of Rockville, MD, I highly recommend this store/dealership.

Sew happy everyone!  May your days be blessed with peace and safety.