I have 2 Janome machines, the 6600 and a Jem. The 6600 is a greate sewing machine, and it does FMQ just greate. What I also love is that he feets for the 6600 fits the Jem perfectly:)) The little Jem is with me to club nights and even if I am out travelling:O

When buying a new machine you need to try them out;) What I love may not be your first choise. There is a lot of wonderful brands out there so go testdrive:))

I have several machines, 3 Pfaffs, 1 featherweight, a Singer treadle, and a Babylock Ellisimo, plus an Elna serger. I need to get out the featherweight and do some sewing on it. The treadle is in storage until our house is built. I learned to sew on the treadle. One Pfaff is in my closet, bought it in 1975 and it has the built in walking foot - IDF. Another Pfaff - a 1473 - is at work in our lunch room so I can sew at lunch and the last Pfaff - a 7570 - is in my Wranger as it is my go to class machine. The Ellisimo stays home. It is just to darn heavy to move but I really like it. The only thing I miss is my built in walking foot. Can you tell I am a pack rat and don't like getting rid of things?

I have a Baby Lock Aspire.... I love it !! It sews like a dream.

I had to splurge for the Bernina 830. Absolutely love it! It costs quite a bit but if you have to have the best, look no further....

I bought a 2nd hand Bernina Artista 185E. I love sewing with it and how flexible it is. It can do almost anything that I think up. With the purchase of the sewing machine I also received the embroidery unit. I have learned a lot about machine embroidery from the Bernina website. It's great in offering many projects for learning new sewing and machine embroidery skills.

I have a Singer 319K(1959)-my absolute favorite girl, a Singer 320Freearm(1962)-both still running as new,also there is embroidery cams available that you can use with the levers in the machine giving a great variety of stitches. I have made many childrens quilts and soft furnishings on these machines.
I bought a Bernina 185E in 2004 just for the 9mm embroidery stitches and I am happy with it.I have yet to try the embroidery module!.
I mainly use her for utility work and ocasional dressmaking.My heirloom work is handpieced ,embroidered and quilted.
I can also recommend the Singer 431G and the 401,if anybody comes across the 411...lucky girl as it has chain stitch.I have several other Singer models and they all work very well for patchwork and quilting.These mechanical Singer models are still available on eBay at a reasonable price.Kind regards to all ,Milena

I love my Vikings. I bought one new in 2000 and second hand one of a similar model in 2008, so that I'd have a back up. No problems and doesn't need cleaning very often because I try to keep it nice.

I have a Pfaff and a Brother. The Brother gets far more use than the Pfaff. The Brother is completely mechanical and cost one third of the price of the computerized Pfaff. The Brother has a wider throat, so it is easier to quilt with, will adjust to varied levels of thickness under the foot, is a straight stitcher only, and gives a very nice quiting stitch. My Pfaff wont talk to the computer, so has lost half of it's functionality.

I have a Pfaff and a Brother. The Brother gets far more use than the Pfaff. The Brother is completely mechanical and cost one third of the price of the computerized Pfaff. The Brother has a wider throat, so it is easier to quilt with, will adjust to varied levels of thickness under the foot, is a straight stitcher only, and gives a very nice quiting stitch. My Pfaff won talk to the computer, so has lost half of it's functionality.

I have a Bernina 1530 that I bought new over 15 years ago. Before that I used a Singer and then a Viking. I wasn't very pleased with either of those. My Bernina has been great and I wouldn't give it up for anything. However, for most of the time I've had it, I sewed clothing, pieced patchwork and did machine applique. A few years ago I got serious about free-motion quilting and that has led to my only problem with this machine. The harp area is way too small to manuver a large quilt. I recently completed a 60 x 60 inch wallhanging and I wouldn't want to ever try to free-motion anything bigger. Good luck in your search

I have a Janome 6600P that I bought a year ago. So far so good. I wish I would have know that the 7700 was to be released this year as I would have waited for it. Budget was my main reason for going to Janome. I just cannot justify Bernina prices. If I won a lottery I would most likely go there but am very happy with the reliability of the Janome products. I think that you should check out Leah Day's latest review on the 7700.

Having a local rep and service person is really important in your choice. Best of luck to you.

When my sister told me about her latest pasttime--quilting--in 2003 and suggested I try it, I didn't think it was something I saw myself doing. But, I gave it a try and bought a Brother CS8072 at WalMart, which I thought was cheap enough in case I didn't like quilting. Three years and close to 200 quilts later, my wonderful machine died--probably from exhaustion. So, I went out and bought a Babylock Espire, only because the Bernina the storekeeper was demonstrating gave her all sorts of trouble. The Espire is fantastic for me--over 300 stitches, up/down needle, automatic threading and cutting thread, beautiful stitching, knee control, problem solver computer, separate automatic bobbin winder with the needle threaded, great lighting, lots of presser feet which also came with my old Brother, and it dusts and does dishes too.

Great machine; I love it. I'm also addicted to all things quilt and quilt-related. Someday I'll tell you about all my thread.

Lilian B

If you don't already have one, you might want to get a copy of Nancy Johnson-sebro's book about Featherweights. It includes a copy of the original owner's manual plus lots of other info about them!

http://www.amazon.com/Featherweight-221-Portable-Nancy-Johnson-Srebro/dp/1607052636/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282044658&sr=1-1

I have hardly used mine - I bought it about a year ago, but it sews so nicely I think I'll start to use it regularly. I just wanted to check how often it needs to be oiled etc. I think I read somewhere that they were originally made to be serviced at home - mine is a 1953 model (same as me!)