9 PFAFF creative sensation pro features help you quilt better

There are many features of the PFAFF creative sensation pro that make quilting your own quilt a breeze. With this machine there’s no need to send your quilt out to be quilted – or to fear needing to learn how to be awesome at free motion quilting – although the machine has some built in stitches for that too!

Here’s a quick rundown of 9 features that make PFAFF’s creative sensation pro your very own quilting machine.

1. Wide harp space

The wide harp space makes it easy to quilt larger projects. The 10″ opening is big enough to push a twin size quilt through with little effort. This helps to lower drag on your quilt as your quilting and to make it easier to keep the area you’re quilting flat and smooth.

2. Permanent Reverse

The ability to go in reverse for more than a stitch without having to hold a button makes it easy to quilt the sections that are farthest from the center. Instead of having to have almost all of your quilt stuffed into the harp space, you can quilt in reverse and keep the area your quilting flat and smooth. Notice how flat and smooth is a theme here? Keeping the right amount of tension on the area of the quilt you’re quilting improves the consistency of the quilting stitches – and reduces the chance for wrinkles on the back!

I used the reverse button to quilt the second half of the heart motifs on my Wish Upon a Star for Spring quilt. It does take some practice to go in reverse, but it definitely made some of my quilting ideas easier to quilt.

3. ¼ʺ Quilting Foot

I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to mark out my quilting designs. Instead, I use the quilt top as a guide and look to where seams join or different fabrics meet and use those as points to aim towards or as signals to change direction.

The ¼ʺ quilting foot lets you space out your quilting without having to mark any lines. The red lines on the foot indicate ¼ʺ increments and are incredibly useful when getting to corners – when the front red line is on top of the seam it’s time to change direction. I relied on this feature when I echoed quilted the triangle areas on the quilt.

4. Built-in Decorative Stitches

There are many hundreds of stitches built-in to the creative sensation pro. There are several in a section for free motion quilting. I used two of the different wavy line options to quilt inside the tulip petals. What an easy way to add curvy lines and still keep the feed dogs engaged!

5. Start/Stop Button

When I first started reviewing the PFAFF machines I thought this button was only for embroidery – wow was I wrong! I love this button! Why? It lets the machine do all the work and leaves me to watch it work. Seriously, you do still have to drive the quilt through the machine but the work is made so much easier because you can focus your body effort on moving the quilt. It’s amazing how much physical tension leaves my body when I don’t have to work the foot pedal. This makes me much more relaxed and focused on what is happening under the needle.

I adjust the speed control when using the start/stop button and lower the speed substantially – basically to almost the speed I would do with my foot. While this might not get the quilting done that much faster, the stitches are much more consistent. Quilting with the start/stop feature means I’m able to quilt for a longer stretch of time. Which in the end, means the quilt will get done and not added to my Works In Progress pile:)

6. Needle Up/Down Button

This feature goes hand in hand with the ones I’ve already mentioned. The needle down function means that I can keep my hands on the quilt and not fiddling to turn the wheel at the most crucial quilting moments – like turning corners! It also helps to keep the quilting section flat and smooth when you do have to readjust your hands – there’s no worry the quilt is going to slip out of position.

7. LED Lights

The lights! The less eye strain the better, right? And less eye strain means the more quilting you can do at one sitting;) This feature just makes it easier to see – especially on this quilt where my thread matched the background fabric, the bright light up close made it easier to see where I was going when I quilted in reverse.

8. Attached Embroidery Unit

The creative sensation pro isn’t built into my table – my table is literally a slab of wood on store bought folding legs! Keeping the embroidery unit attached while I’m quilting has given me a larger surface flush with the needle bed. The result has been easier maneuverability of the quilt under the needle and when turning the quilt. There’s less drag which means improved stitching and less physical strain, which we’ve already figured out means more enjoyable quilting time!

9. IDT System

I love the Integrated Dual Feed (IDT) system for giving me consistently even stitches. The ¼ʺ quilting foot works with this system to feed the quilt layers evenly and delivers even stitches on the front and the back of the quilt. My stitches turned out consistently even when quilting in reverse. It works with most of the presser feet included with the machine – an icon on the touch screen will tell you when to use it. Plus, it’s easy to engage the system  with a forward push and a click.

I think it’s also responsible for almost completely eliminating the “bump” of extra fabric that can happen when quilting. It makes such a big difference!

BONUS – Embroidered Quilt Label

 Of course using a machine like this one I couldn’t resist embroidering a quilt label. I think this might be the benefit of the creative sensation pro – having a machine with lots of design options makes it easy to add creative touches to a project. I used embroidery and sewing fonts on the label. I know I added more information than I would have if I had written it on with a pen!

Working together these 9 features of the PFAFF creative sensation pro make quilting your own quilt an enjoyable process. Time to pick another quilt to finish! Join me tomorrow for more quilting fun.