It’s been nearly two months since we had to retreat to our homes here in the Houston area due to COVID-19. For our area, and perhaps thanks to social distancing, our infection and death rates haven’t been nearly so bad as originally projected. But for the most part, in the beginning I think most people were more than happy to wait it out and pray that things wouldn’t get so bad. Now, though, people are getting restless, ready to return to “normal” life and get back to work. Personally, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, and I have a genuine concern that we may be jumping the gun a little bit. I read this morning that the Wuhan district in China is pushing to test every single person for COVID-19. That’s 11 million people they want to test, because they’ve had a small outbreak pop up this weekend.

The reality is, things aren’t going to be “normal” for a while yet, so I decided in the beginning to find things to do at home in an effort to stay busy. I did do a little housecleaning, but it’s sooooooooo boring. And it NEVER stays clean, even though there are only three adults in this house!

Of course, I turned to quilting to keep me busy, and keep my busy it has. Well, first I made a few masks, and I still have a few more to make. But after that, I started working on my Little House on the Prairie quilt. You can read about my use of the Cricut Maker here, if you missed it. Admittedly, I haven’t gotten tons done since that post. I’m a slow quilter, because frankly, I’m out of practice. And I’m also working on getting another quilt backed and quilted. I started on that a few weeks ago, but then I had to send the Pfaff Creative 4.5 in for an unscheduled and unexpected Spa Day. It seems that the connection from the USB ports to the motherboard came lose, so I just had the dealer do a full service. It was due to be cleaned in June, anyway, so why not get it all done at once? I’m happy to report he’s back home and doing well.

While the Creative 4.5 was away for R&R, I turned to the Ambition 620 I purchased last Fall to make masks, but I found after making a few that the Ambition 620 lacked a few features that I’ve come to rely on with the 4.5. It was missing Pivot and a couple other small features that I really missed when sewing on it for long stretches of time, so I stopped by the dealer to find out what the next step was that would have the things I wanted. After all, I could trade in the Ambition 620 and get full value of what I paid against the purchase of another machine.

 

The Ambition 620 is a great machine, and it’s fabulous for anyone who doesn’t have a machine that has things like Pivot and automatic foot lift and drop. I’d put it at a solid beginner to intermediate machine. I paid about $900 for it, so while I knew I would have to pay more for the things I wanted, I still wanted to keep my overall investment at less than $2,000 total, including my trade. I really love my Pfaff machines, but to get the things I wanted from Pfaff, the lowest priced machine in their line up was $3,000-ish. I figured I could maybe get Chris to agree to $1,000 – $1,100 more but not twice that. The sales person suggested a Viking Sapphire 930. At $1900 MSRP, I could trade in my Ambition 620 and get out at around $1,000 plus tax. I should mention that while I don’t know how other dealers do it (or even if they offer it), both of my dealers will allow you to trade in a machine you’ve purchased from them within the last year and get full credit for the purchase price of your machine. The catch is, they apply that credit to the MSRP, not the sales price, of the machine you choose. It’s always a good idea to consider whether or not you’re getting enough bang for your trade in buck on a deal like that.

I told the sales person I would give it some thought and left the shop. Chris was in the car, and I told him what I’d found, how much it would cost, and we went back and forth a bit about it. I mean, I know I buy machines like some people buy socks, but I wasn’t happy with the Ambition 620 now that I’d identified the things I didn’t care for about it. We finally agreed that I could trade in the Ambition 620 for the Sapphire, but that I can’t buy any furniture or make any large purchases for the next year. LOL

In the end, I wound up with the shop’s floor model of the Viking Sapphire 930. They were completely out of that model, and they gave me a break on it by not charging me sales tax. I always buy their extended warranty because it also includes three free cleanings (for a total of four cleanings, since the first year’s cleaning is free anyway), and I walked out the door having spent about $1,100. Isn’t it lovely?

 

While I know that I could have sold the Ambition 620 outright to someone and purchased the Sapphire for about $1500, the truth is, there isn’t a lot of difference in this case between trading in the Ambition or selling it outright. In fact, based on what I’ve seen around here when it comes to selling machines, people try hard to talk you way down on your price. I figure I may have gotten $600 to $700 for the Ambition, but I still would have lost $200 to $300 on that deal. At least this way, I didn’t have to try to deal with folks. But I almost always recommend selling your machine outright to someone if it’s been more than a year since you purchased it, or your dealer won’t give you a fair trade in price for one reason or another.

I have to admit, I’m in love with it. I’ll give a full review soon, when I’ve had a chance to really put it through it’s paces, but let me just say that I really do love this machine. I’ve got it downstairs where I can sew in the evenings and still spend time with Chris when he gets home from work, so it’s getting a lot of use. I’m still making some masks, and I’ve been using it to put together the Little House on the Prairie quilt.

I will also write up a review on the Ambition 620 soon, because it’s a nice machine; it just wasn’t the right fit for me.