Quilting in Catalonia (Part II)

The next step was finding a sewing machine. There was the question of buying a basic used machine, borrowing a machine, finding a store where I could rent a machine, etc. I had started looking from the moment we arrived but now that I had fabric, it became necessary.

There is this great second hand website that sells just about everything used (like Craigslist) called segundamano; we have found it very useful for finding baby supplies. I also searched on eBay and Amazon. What I found, though, was that in Spain (and I'm guessing, Europe in general) the available sewing machines differ greatly from what is offered in the United States. The brands are different and quilting hasn't really taken off here as it has in the States, which means getting information about if a machine can quilt or its capacity to quilt, etc. is very limited. There are some machines, of course, that are well-known in the US and in Europe (Brother, Singer, Pfaff, Bernina) but these are either ones that are available at a very low ($100-$200) or very high price-point ($1000+) and here are available beginning at a much higher price point (400€+), which means it is less affordable to begin sewing.

The machine!

Thankfully, Kilian's grandmother offered to let me use her older Singer which saved the project because we had not budgeted for a moderate to high-priced sewing machine (at least at this moment). The machine seems solid and it may even be from the 1970's. The instruction manual comes in English and I am ready to start sewing (I have already cut the fabric)!

My workstation in the basement.