180D

"Lake Urchin" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I have the PE 200 wich is more or less the same machine. I have had it for a couple of years now and I like it very much. The quality of the embroidery is good. I do not use the designs in the machine (mine has Snoopy and the I guess the same basics as the 180D) so I don't know much about their quality. I have had a bit of trouble lately after a mishap with a tangled thread that bent the needle wich in turn damaged the bobbin house and then it led to more trouble and damage before I noticed and then.... Well, a trip to my friendly serviceman and it's running like new again. I guess what happened isn't really machine oriented, it could have happened to any machine. I am however in the process of upgrading because I want a bigger design area than the 4x4. I use the multiposition hoop a lot, but I would really like to have the 5x7 area offered by PC 6500 and above. That would save _me_ a lot of bother not to have to resize and split designs as much, but I understand that most people find the 4x4 area just big enough. Price sounds OK to me, but if you don't particularly want the Disney designs you can pick up a PE 150 from $299 at

and slightly more at other places. But I guess the Disney stuff _is_ nice if you sew for kids, small or big (I do a lot of Winnie the Pooh for my soon 26 year-old daughter!).

Good luck! Asa (in Sweden where a 180D would be well over $1000!)

I have the 180D as well as the ULT2001. I love both machines. The 180D is a real workhorse and I've never had any problems with it. I even bought it used from Ebay. I was expecting to have to take it in initially, but it runs great. Here are a couple of things I don't like about it:

1 - You can't really see what part of the design you are embroidering at a given time. All you see is a big blob on the screen. You can view the colors of the thread instead of the 'blobs', but I don't trust it to tell me the correct colors, so I either print a color chart or have it up in Embird at the same time so I know exactly what I'm stitching.

2 - If, for some reason, your design gets screwed up in stitching and you have to go back to a certain point, you have to keep holding the back button, and I think it only moves 9 stitches at a time this way. You can go back to the start/end of a color, however.

Other than that, I love the machine. I got my ULT 2001 first, though, so I was spoiled before I got the 180D. If you can live with the limitations of the 180D, I would highly recommend it.

Hi Asa,

Thanks for the info. I have a new little grandson and my daughter-in-law has decorated his room in Winnie the Pooh and other Disney Characters. I want to be able to put Disney etc. disigns on his clothes and I would like to make him a quilt with Winnie & company embroidered on the quilt blocks. It would probably be a very, very long time if ever I would need a bigger area than a 4X4 I think. I also have an idea for a quilted tree skirt with xmas embroidered blocks.

Thanks again, Marilyn

I do appreciate all the imput. I'm new at Embroidery machines so I am trying to get all my facts good and bad before I purchase. I still think that maybe the 180D might be the machine for me.

BTW I have Kittens also. They like to keep me company in my sewing room. :->

Thanks again, Marilyn