I have the low end Janome and it is so nice. A fried recommended this model to me.but truthfully, I hear good things about all those machines you mentioned...My Janome selection was easy because we only have one dealer here in my small town and that's Janome..Brother has a couple of outlets but no repair service.....I will say that Janome had been recommended to me and I was very interested in it before I started shopping.

wanted to add that I bought the embroidery only machine because the sewing/embroidery was $1 thousand more and you can buy lots of sewing machine for a thousand bucks.

Thanks for your input. I haven't considered an embroidery only machine, but that's a good thought too. There's only a Bernina dealer in my town, very highly recommended, repair/service all types of machines too. They've shown me what they have, gave demos, let me try different things and have answered all my questions. Seriously considering one of them, but the cost! May look into embroidery only machines, now that you've brought them up. Thanks! The (re)search continues!!!

Hi Carol - I've had the husqvarna viking Topaz 20 for about a year and a half. Once I got it working (required a bit of back and forth with a resolution of swap out for a different new machine and the process was a head ache, however that might happen with any piece of computerized equipment)I really enjoyed it. I have the 4D software which was offered half off with purchase and machine was on sale. Do get enough software that you can resize images, change colors of threads, edit images to delete parts (so if you have an image with some line "Grandma knows best" "Happy Valentine's Day" whatever you can delete the line and go for the image). Don't compare costs without including what you need for software.

I looked at the Berninas and decided I could get more machine for the money with Husqvarna AND their comparable machine had you plugged into the laptop/computer the entire time the embroidery was stitching out (big designs can take 6 hours and you can't turn off most machines during this process - even the Diamond - as they won't precisely line up when you turn them back on). I didn't want something that expensive highly integrated to a laptop as we all know you have to replace laptops every so many years as operating systems eventually don't support the old one. The Hus has something like a thumb drive to load designs to the machine.

If your local group is Bernina you might get more hands on training there which in the beginning is a boon. I know there are some sewing shops other than a JoAnns that sell Hus and wish I'd used one. The one within JoAnns is limited to one staff on duty at a time and they need to sell, not teach. I'd been led to believe up front I'd get much better hands on training than I did. They'll try their best to punt you to buying their instructional DVDs. I'm currently on a mailing list of someone locally to PAY to learn more about the 4D software (which I could do by trudging through its manual but I work full time and that just isn't fun).

I've posted a few pictures of things I've done on Facebook's Machine Embroidery Group. Haven't yet found a really active group - but there's a bit more action there than other places. They're discussion tab has a "Let's Share" on machines.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of Embroidery Projects on FB

I have the babylock ellageo and love it have had it for about 2 years now. I am so addicted to using it with my regular quilting.