Pfaff Quilt Expression 4 – 1 year (and a half) review

Sorry folks, I’m a little late to the table with my 1 year review but as I have had a few requests for an update I thought I would put together my final thoughts on this machine.



There are many feet you can use that have better contact with the feed dogs, in place of this horrible recessed quarter inch foot the machine comes with. Keep in mind that the feed dogs on this machine are 9mm apart to accommodate all the decorative stitches. This can make smaller piecing that only touches one feed dog more difficult, however, I have not found this to be an issue as I don’t piece with tiny pieces but its worth considering depending on what projects you are interested in doing, and what’s more important for you.



Choose any foot that you feel gives you better contact with the feed dogs for your project. The seam guide foot has better contact so if small piecing is your thing, have a play around with this in the shop and see if it helps.

I purchased the Pfaff foot book on Ebay and found it an interesting read as it gives you some alternative uses for some of the feet. The manual really should contain this information but at least this is available to buy.



I now exclusively use Aurifil thread (orange spool) for piecing and quilting, this produces little lint which means less time spent cleaning the bobbin and my thread cutter works most of the time. The thread is so thin that it means that I can fit loads of thread on to a bobbin and when the machine tells me my bobbin is low, it actually is low.

I recently mocked up another Kaleidoscope piece to see if experience has taught me anything about bulky seams. It turns out that I have learnt quite a lot over the past year and a half. Using my more stable quilting foot I now begin my seams a quarter if an inch in and back stitch then forward stitch to prevent the machine chewing up my fabric. The thinner thread I now use helps massively with thicker seams, as does pressing each seam as I go and spray starching each piece to give extra stability. (I do all of these things as standard now, and would do on any machine as it produces better quality results in my opinion.)

I think when I first made my kaleidoscope quilt I was trying to open each seam as I went along but I should have pressed them all to one side and opened just the final seam. No problems with this at all now. As you can see from the pictures below.

Here are the 6 intersecting seams that I want to put together:



Here is a quick video of me joining the seams and the end result:

A couple of smaller stitches over the bulk but the machine didnt have to much trouble this time due to preparing the fabric properly.



and the front:



Free Motion quilting. Spring motion vs Sensormatic

When I first began to FMQ, I didn’t like the sensormatic mode at all. I thought the machine didn’t like the bedsheet I was using but that had nothing to do with it. I just didnt reduce the pivot height.

During the first 3 months of this year I got a lot of FMQ practice in. I successfully managed feathers and swirls. The new open toe sensormatic foot I purchased made life much easier and I actually prefer this mode now to spring motion as you don’t get the hopping of the fabric and the needle just glides over the fabric effortlessly.



If you're thinking about purchasing this machine make sure you either buy this foot seperatly, or check that you get the open toe version with the machine.(I have been told they are selling these in place of the old foot with the machine but be sure to check this.) My initial problems with this mode stemmed from my own inexperience. Its essential that you adjust the pivot height to match your quilt thickness otherwise you will get skipped stitches. -2 or -3 normally works for me.

If you're getting skipped stitches and you’ve already adjusted the pivot height try going slower when creating curves and try setting the speed on the machine so its one less thing to think about when you are trying to control your feet and the movement of the quilt at the same time. Also, if your thread is cross wound lie your spool down in the horizontal position and use a spool cap.

Well thats pretty much all I have left to say about this machine. Yes there is a learning curve, but trust me it is worth it! and yes the manual is rubbish on detail but the online community and links I have provided in previous posts on this machine have made life much easier, and there are many, many happy people out there with this machine, its normally just the unhappy people who post topics about it!


:-)