My Innova Adventure

So amount a month ago, I decided I needed a longarm sewing machine, like real bad.  There happened to be a quilt show near us and we got in the car to go test drive machines that happened to be at the show. I had done my homework and knew Innova would be there and that there is a local rep and showroom near me. I got to the show and first tried out the Fun Quilter by Nolting. It was ok, but I wasn't really impressed, it seemed stiff and rigid. It also required oil regularly at the top.

Onward to the Gammil booth. They had a pretty snazzy looking booth going but they didn't even notice I was in the booth. One worker was busy messing with an automated system and didn't look up, and the other two were busy talking to each other. If I'm about to lay down some serious cash on these things, I better get some attention, like stop what you're doing and lay down you coat so I don't step in a puddle kind of attention. Others might have had a different experience, but it didn't sit well with me and I wanted some personal attention, not only when I was buying it but in the future.

Last stop was at the Innova booth with Virginia Longarm. Right away someone came up to me and asked if I wanted to try one out and started answering all of my questions. I felt good as soon as I stepped up to one. When test driving it, it was smooth as butter and the stitches were amazingly even and gorgeous. I was pretty much sold from that point on. Bonus that it's "oil free" and the only place you can put oil is in the hook assembly, and that's only if you want to. So on to picking out exactly what I wanted. I went with a 22" on a 10' frame under the guidance of the sales lady, Lisa, because I will hopefully turn this whole quilting thing into a business someday.  I didn't get anything else really since I'm already spending so much money. If I find that I need Lightning Stitch or Pantovision, or whatever, I can always upgrade later when the money wound isn't so fresh.

I also decided to have it delivered to my house and skip the hefty installation fee. There are videos online if you chose to do the same and they're helpful, for the most part. They've changed their design some since making the videos, but it's relatively easy. I say that being an engineer and can grasp picture diagrams in all their vagueness fairly well. That being said, it took us two evenings after work and half of one Sunday to get it all put together.

I've done one round of practice quilting and it went fairly well.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist so it'll probably be awhile before I actually consider myself "good". Anyways, here's some pics!

He arrived!! Took about 2.5 weeks to get here.

Total shipping weight?  592 lbs.  He's a beast!

I think this was after two nights of assembly...

Meet Stitchenstein!!  In all his glory