Ooh - Pivot Feature

I bought a new sewing machine last month.  I finally broke down and bought a domestic machine with an 11" arm, a huge improvement over the 6" arm on my old one.  I disliked quilting so much and I think now that I won't have to push an elephant through a mouse hole, I'll be much happier.  

I'm not ready to do any quilting just yet.  I'm still working on the other side (the side with the elephants) of my Elephant Pillow Quilt.  I fused my elephants to the background and now I'm zigzagging the edges.

I decided to try out the pivot feature on this new machine, and all I can say is "ooh".  No more manually lifting the presser foot when I want to pivot.  I just push a button before I begin sewing and Pivot Function is activated and stays in force until I disable it.  

This means that whenever I get to the spot I where I want to pivot, all I have to do is lift my foot off the foot pedal and enjoy the magic as the needle stays down and the presser foot lifts up.  I do my pivot, step on the gas, and the presser foot comes down and away I sew.

I like this for three reasons:

1. It's fun.
2. It saves time.
3. The presser foot reliably stays up until I step on the pedal again. 

On my old machine, I had to manually lift the presser foot, and lately it would sometimes decide to just fall down again.  Then I'd have to raise it again.  My repair person told me that there's a little plastic stick-out part that was worn, and that's why the presser foot wouldn't always stay up.  If I had told him about that problem before he tuned the machine, he would have fixed it cheaply.  To fix it now costs the same price as a tuneup, because he has to pull everything apart.

So it's just as well I bought a new machine.

Round and round I go, looking forward to every pivot.