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During the Quilter's Heritage Celebration, I'm going to be helping out my friend Amy, who owns Brubaker's Sewing in New Holland (www.brubakerssewing.com) In order to be a bit more useful, she graciously loaned me a new Pfaff 2027 to play with.

My review of the Pfaff 2027.... A very nice machine. Has all of the stitches you need...none that you don't. There wasn't one "Gosh, I wish it had that stitch" comment the entire time. Very easy to use. One thing that I liked was that almost any decorative stitch could be achieved using 1 foot, so you weren't constantly changing feet to change stitches. You could be plugging away on one stitch, punch the number of the one you wanted to change to, and keep sewing without stopping. Very nice. The other thing I liked was the built in walking foot. I didn't think I'd like it, but it is very nice. Easy to engage and disengage. All of the regular feet, are popped on and off the bottom of the presser foot, so you're changing the foot only, not the whole shank...much like my beloved Singer Creative Touch (ca. 1980)...God rest it's soul.

On this little practice piece, I ran some thicker thread in the border and thinner elsewhere. It handled everything I did to it. I think I would like it better for free motion if it was set down into a cabinet or had a large extension table. Doing the feathers was a bit hard because there wasn't anywhere to rest your left hand...it was kind of hanging off in Space. The tension for free motion was easy to adjust and I got a nice balanced stitch with very little fuss. The bobbin was easy to fill and change. I made a few buttonholes. The semi-automatic mode is the one I liked best. The holes were very nice, even and tight. The satin stitch was very impressive. It has a needle up/down built into the foot pedal which is very handy, and I used it a lot.

One other thing, besides having the stitches I use the most...zig zag and buttonhole for machine applique...it does have a mock hand quilting stitch. Very clever. You put nylon thread in the needle and whatever you want to show in the bobbin. It makes a stitch with the nylon and then pulls the bobbin thread up for a stitch, then does a nylon stitch...So you have a line of clear, color, clear, color, clear...

My final analysis...A nice moderately priced machine with everything a quilter could want. If you want a machine that can mimic crazy quilting stitches, free motion, and sew clothes without having 250 other stitches you may never use, the Pfaff 2027 should be on your "take a look at" list.