Can someone give me a guide to the price you would pay for a reasonable quilting sewing machine. I have a Janome DC2101 (I think from memory) and am thinking of upgrading to a machine with a larger throat area and also which has a few more stitches, automatic thread cutter, an inbuilt walking foot, if possible and a few extra bibs and bobs. I have been quoted between $1799 - up to $8,000. I definitely can't afford the latter but would like a more heavy duty machine than I have presently, but not break the bank!! I am happy to purchase from the USA and pay the required postage if needed. I would appreciate any guidance you can give.
Thanks

Well, you really need to try out a machine (and frame if you go that way). You won't know how you will like the feel of it unless you try it first. There is an article in the new "The Quilter Magazine" about the new mid arm machines that are mounted on a table so they don't take up gobs of room. I wish I had waited now for one of these instead of the Mega Quilter and 10' frame that hogs up my sewing room. Check out the magazine. You might find it helpful. Good luck.

Hi Carol-no way would I spend that much on a machine at this stage. I just bought the Brother PC460 Project Runway thry Amazon.com for about 450.00 and no sales tax plus free shipping. It has so many features-plus 294 stitches, knee lift, auto threader, needle up/down, and comes with a walking foot plus many extra fee/gadgets. It also has a 7 1/2 inch throat. I LOVE this machine! I bought the extension table that fits it from Amazon.com too, and got free shipping and NO sales tax. They had the best price I could find-and I spend a long time looking! Everyone has their favorites, but the features on this one went way beyond my expectations and for the price, can't be beaten as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, check it out! No way should you have to spend a thousand or more for a machine with all those features!

However, if your wanting a long arm, those are the prices they go for from what I've seen. By the way, where are you if not in the USA??

I say vintage machines are the way to go. They do all the basics, and not too many things go horribly wrong with them. Carol, in what country do you live?

good luck it is a very hard decision

brother makes a workhorse of a home machine that they call a quilter - fast, strong stitches and a few other bells and whistles. i have a janmome that fits your bill and i love it. everyone will tell you a different machine. you have to try them all out. very time consuming, but the best investment for all that money.


see where this takes you:

http://www.taunton.com/threads/pdf/S...chineChart.pdf

i found it by typing ' home sewing machine comparisons'.

If you already have a Janome, the Janome 6600 ($1800.00 - 2000.00) is a wonderful workhorse. It comes with Accufeed, and quilts kingsize without difficulty. The throat space is a generous 9inches and the machine can handle anything you do. However, that being said, currently I am also looking at the HQ Sweet Sixteen. It is a table mounted, sitdown longarm with a throat space of 16" ($ 5000.00 - 6000.00) My reasoning is I want to keep my Janome 6600 for sewing and piecing and use the HQ Sweet Sixteen for quilting. The one thing I have learned about asking about machines on the board, is, that you'll get as many differnt opinions as there are different machines. You really need to test drive different machines to make a informed decision.

I just bought a Pfaff Expression 4 and it's got a huge throat and all the bells and whistles. It was £1100 UK (don't know where you are).Pfaff have built in IDT so quilting is a dream.
Have fun looking.

try the Janome 6600. It is great for quilting.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I am from Adelaide South Australia. I went online yesterday and looked on Amazon.com and also at a few other online sites, however most of them only had smaller machines. I will keep plugging away and see how I go. I broke the news to my husband last night and he just shook his head. Oh well he may like to learn to quilt too... he's retired so he has the time!