.I can't remember why I initially decided that I needed a sewing machine but one day I went to our local Tesco hypermarket to see what they had. Not sure why Tesco but in the Czech republic you always end up buying things in the least likely place. Anyway, they actually had a decent selection of machines but my eye was drawn to one that had pink markings - thats how all great decisions are made no? They also had several Singer sewing machines which I knew must be good as had heard of them but this was as far as I went in terms of machine knowledge. I was also aware of them because my maiden name was actually Singer but that is by the by and no I am not related! Sadly Singer didn't have anything pink at all so home I went with my new machine and there it stayed in its box for 5 years until I joined my quilting class in January 2019.
The studio machines were Pfaff ( see, my machine knowledge increased practically overnight)I think but keen to try out my new 'skill' at home I dug out the box and lo and below I discovered I had bought a Toyota sewing machine. I'd like to say that I devoured the manual before diving in but I figured it must be easy so jumped right in, made a right hash of threading the needle and then put it back in its box.
The following week I dragged my machine to quilt class , now in a beautiful pink machine bag and got my new quilting comrades to explain what to do. Every weekend would bust the machine out again and gradually I learnt how to get started on my projects without throwing a strop every time my thread snapped. Trouble shooting was resolved by taking it back into class. What I soon realised was that this Toyota machine was really loud compared with the studio machines, we are talking jack hammer here. If you ever had an old Toyota car back in the day then you will easily manage to join the dots - its a design feature not a fault!
My trusty Toyota served me well though and I even managed to free motion quilt ( badly) several quilts but, after several months where I spent more hours trying to figure out what was wrong rather than sewing did I decide to take the plunge and get a better machine. Back in the pink bag it went and that was end of my Toyota sewing journey - or was it? More of that to come in future blogs.