I have a BabyLock Espire; not the Espire that came out years ago, but the one that is called the "new" Espire, and I love it. It has all the things Nanajayne mentioned, plus what was one of the most important features for me: automatic thread-cutting. Two other nice features the Espire has that my first BabyLock didn't have are the ability to lock my stitch selection (so that if my elbow hits a button, I won't suddenly find the needle position changed) and a smooth transition from the accessory box to the needle plate. According to the dealer, a bunch of other machines have a little bump there that tends to flip your seams towards you when you are doing piecing. Until I got one, I had to stop just before a seam reached the presser foot to make sure the seam was still pressed in the direction I had chosen. The new Espire's throat is approximately 8&1/4", pretty good for machine quilting. It is kind of pricey, but often dealers will offer machines that people turned in for an upgrade within their first year, which are much cheaper, and they have been serviced and work well. One way to get a great machine for less. Last spring Babylock took off the full price of my first BabyLock when I got the new Espire. But as the others have said, the best thing is to look around and try out various machines. I'm sure you will find something that thrills you.

I think fiberglass columns will be overkill. They are extremely heavy, designed to be load-bearing. Foam is okay, "if you like that sort of thing" A good interior wood column will probably be better in the long run; it has a good, solid feel, and maybe is a tad less damage-prone that foam. We put in some wood columns with foam capitals and bases, and I worry that the bases will eventually get dinged up by shoes and vacuum cleaner traffic. Casey

The Singers I've had seemed to need the most repairs. Had a Sears Kenmore for nearly 25 years and the zig-zag feature finally quite, straight stitching works fine. Now I have a Brother (cheaper) and it is serving me well. Has about 15 different stitches which I like as I'm sewing for Great-Grand Kids now. The trouble in my area of US is that it is difficult to find a repairman for any machine.

Merry Christmas to everyone, and thank you Kathy, Quiltglo, and Monica and for your advice. I did trade-up to the Bernina 1008 after all. My new machine is completely mechanical, not computerized, and extremely simple. I learned to use it in less than an hour. I'm planning to do some heavy duty home dec sewing (throw pillows with thick brush fringe, slipcovers, roman shades etc). And the Bernina 1008 has a much more powerful motor than the Bernette did. Yesterday I made 25 yards of welting -- my first home dec sewing project, and the machine didn't even work up a sweat. What my new Bernina lacks is all the automatic features my Bernette had -- needle threader, drop in bobbin, needle up/down button, one step buttonholer. These features are convenient, but they weren't as important to me as basic reliability.