Actually I have 3 machines. A feather weight, My lock serger, and a Janome 9000. I use the Janome for my quilting and have not real complaints but I know that if I were to get another I would go to a lower end Janome that and not an embroidery machine. I believe there is a P6000 that sound interesting. Jayne

I love my Brother PQ 1500. I think that is the name. It a machine made for quilters. Free motion is a dream on it. Fast, fast, 1500 stitches a minute so it will amaze you how fast you get things done. There are similar machines made by Juki and all the other companies. They range from 699-1299. I got my brother at a Sewing expo for 800. Worth every penny.

I have my mom's Singer 15-91 (1950) in a cabinet, a Singer 237 (1969) Fashion Mate, and a vintage Singer Featherweight 221 (1947) that I use for piecing, straight-line quilting with a walking foot, and other sewing. My Viking Quilt Designer was approximately $2000 does excellent free-motion quilting and has lots of decorative stitches, but this model is no longer being made. The Designer I and II are now the top end models made by Viking.

I love my Janome 4800QC(quilters companion..$1300)but I wish it had a longer arm. There's only 6" between the needle and where the work surface starts to curve up. It's difficult to get a twin-size rolled up and shoved thru there. Actually I would like my needle to just hang down from the ceiling..no machine on the table!!!
Bon
:)

LOL, Bon!

I have a Huskystar C10 by Husqvarna Viking. Paid around $400 about a year and and a half ago. I have no complaints so far. I only wished that I had splurged a little more and got the embroidery model.

Rebecca

Between My MIl and I we have 6machines LOL. Most are Janome's Mil does have a Pfaff ($1100)I primarily use a one of 2 Janome mechanicals or the Janome Jem($400). the current mechanical that I am using I got on craigslist last month for $90 it was BRAND new! still in the box the people had used it once and were given another machine.

I love my Janome and personally find the pfaffs a bit picky.

For years I had a little BabyLock 300. Last year I upgraded to an Elna Quilters Dream (around $800)
and they're right. It is a dream!
Still have the trusty old babylock. I use it to travel to classes with.

Miscindy, a lot of it depends on what you plan to use the machine for. The Brother PQ1500 that was mentioned is a straight stitch only semi-industrial machine, similar to my Juki. It has a 9" harp and sews really great and really fast, but only straight stitch.

Do you have any shops near you where you can go test drive different machines and learn about their features? Of course, they will try to sell you the Cadillac when you may be only looking for the Toyota, but you will learn a lot!

Donna

For piecing, I use my Featherweight 221, but for free motion, I use my Pfaff Grand Quilter, which has a bigger throat.
I paid $350 for my FW on Ebay (it was in really nice shape), and ~$900 for my Grand Quilter on sale.
I love the Grand Quilter for good control, simple operation and the deeper throat. My FW is superior in strait stitches, and it's just fun to use so I've become pretty attached to it.
Clara

I have a Kenmore. Basic machine with a menu of fancy stitches that I rarely use. Serves all my sewing purposes, easy to understand, use, maintain, move from room to room. Nothing fancy at all. Under $300 about 10 years ago.

My friend has a computerized Pfaff that is incredible--sleek, quiet, practically does the sewing for you.

The only time I'm ever mildly dissatisfied with my Kenmore is after an afternoon of sewing with my Pfaff friend.

Dianne

I love my Viking Lily which is no longer made. It's very user friendly, and is great for both piecing and machine quilting. There are many more decorative stitches than I will ever use, but "Never say never."

I had a Pfaff for 26 years that finally died last year (parts weren't available to fix it) and I had to buy a new machine. I bought another Pfaff, but went with their cheapest one -- it was around $500 including tax. It works great, but doesn't have some of the features my older one had, like the needle stopping up and the electronic eye telling you when your bobbin is almost empty. I've used the newer one to sew through 6 layers of denim (for a purse) and it handled it wonderfully. I'm also teaching myself to free motion quilt and seems to be doing that great, too. Has some decorative stitches, but I seem to use straight & zigzag all the time, so haven't played around with the others too much yet.

I love the Baby Lock New Espire I got in March when I turned in my still newish Baby Lock Quilter's Choice. There is no comparison between the two, to my mind. The new Espire just came out this year, but now that I have been using it for several months, I am convinced of its "greatness".

The new Espire is computerized and can be connected to the Internet so that future upgrades can be bought and simply downloaded--a big potential future saving.

A nice big attachable "table" to make machine quilting easy comes with it, along with a knee lever for lifting the needle, if desired, also two spindles you can attach to hold those huge spools of quilting thread.

It has loads of fancy stitches and features.

You can choose to have automatic thread "tying off" (4 stitches taken in the same place) at the beginning and end of sewing. You can choose to have the thread automatically cut at the end of sewing. You can choose "needle up" or
"down".

You can set the width of seams to suit your needs. For instance, I have one sewing "program" on which I have set the seam at 6.5mm. This gives me a scant 1/4" seam. AND--I consider this very important--the feed dogs get a good grip on the fabric even with that scant 1/4" seam. My BLQC and the Kenmore I had before that didn't, with the result that my seams always wavered a bit, no matter how careful I was to keep them straight.

When you get the stitch, its length, the seam allowance, and other things the way you like them, you can press a "lock" button, and then nothing will change if you accidentally hit something with your elbow.

The touch-pad-type controls are very intuitive and easy to use. I have spent much less time with the manual for this machine compared with the less-well-feature-endowed Baby Lock Quilter's Choice I had before.

Unlike many, many machines I saw at the dealer's, the Espire does not have a bobbin plate with that nasty little bump that often spoiled seams I had gone to the trouble of pressing open. I nearly always press seams open, and my previous machines caused me untold annoyance when I had to keep lifting up what I was piecing to make sure the direction of the seam allowances had not been changed.

The machine warns you when the bobbin thread is about to run out. There is a special spindle so you can wind a new bobbin without unthreading the needle. Bobbin winding is easy, too.

It has a bigger throat than many machines: about 8 1/4".

What don't I like about it? Well, it doesn't have as pleasing a shape as some other machines, and it is somewhat heavier, but not so heavy that I can't lift it, and I am 70.
Then there is the price: pretty high. However, I got a good deal, in that I turned in my BLQC and they gave me credit for the entire amount I had paid for it around 9 months previously, so I ended up paying around $1400, if I remember right. I forget exactly. What I DO remember is that DH (bless him!) said, hopefully, "This will be the last sewing machine you'll need to buy, right?" I love it so much that I can't imaging wanting another one, so long as this one keeps working, so I agreed. A new one, without a trade-in, would probably cost over $2000, but by now there may be some available for less. I mean lightly-used machines that people have turned in when buying other models, the way I did with the BLQC.

I have used it extensively since buying it and it is pretty reliable. The only thing that has gone wrong was that the lower tension got too loose. However, with cleaning around the bobbin case and re-threading the needle, the problem seemed to fix itself before I had to take the machine to the dealer. He told me over the phone that the problem had probably been caused by a bit of thread caught somewhere. So when the same thing happened a second time, I didn't panic, but just fiddled around as before, and blew a bit of air into the works, and presto, no more problem!

In case I seem to be unduly praising this machine, I rush to say that I have no personal or other connection to its company or the dealer who sold it to me, beyond the fact that I am their customer.

I have a Kenmore 28. I would imagine due to the age it is no longer made. If you have a smaller budget to keep in mind when shopping I would recomend this kind of machine. I have enjoyed 15 happy years with my machine. In that time I have made many quilts ranging from tiny to full size. Yes I was able to scrunch a full size quilt through "Baby"(aka. the Kenmore). We have created lots of clothes together and altered or mended many more clothes. We have sewn fur, leather, denim (up to 4 layers so far), fleece, cotton, and silk and never had a problem. She has never had to go to the doctor. I can do all the cleaning, oiling and fixing she has ever needed. She does a bunch of different zig-zag stiches and stretch stiches. Her adjustments are on dials. Her feed dogs do drop. She has never had tension issues. Baby and I have such a great working relationship that I haven't even thought of using my other machines. Then again me other machines are a Singer and a New Home that are around 100 years old:)

Foxy.

I have 2 machines. A Sears Best bought back in the 60's and still works well, I upgraded to a Brother 450 which suits my quilting needs nicely. I never wanted to get into the embrodery end of it... so I suggest you decide first what you want to do in the way of quilting and go from there. There is so many choices out there you can become overwhelmed... I looked for a year before getting my Brother.

I have a Brother 8500. I love it. I've used the embroidery features in the past, but not lately. I wouldn't rule out using them in the future..but unfortunately the Brother dealership near me went out of business, and I have to travel further for parts and accessories. I find that you can get more features with a Brother, for the same price as other types of machines.