Husqvarna Viking machines are what I have and love them.

By all means, test drive and my advice if you are wanting to quilt on it, is to get one with at least a 9" throat, ability to lower feed dogs easily, needle down stopping position, adjustable foot pressure, a flat bed and single stitch needle plate.

If you want one for strictly piecing and quilting, I would like to suggest that you look for a Brother PQ 1500S. I bought mine from Amazon for somewhere around $500. No fancy stitches, no zig-zag, but great straight stitching and a good sized harp area for quilting. Has pin feed also to help the fabric along. Comes with the extension table to give a pretty nice area for quilting. Great machine for the money.

That is definitely one of their low end models. I would rather have a used Janome or an older Kenmore.

I have been sewing and making quilts for more than 40 years. Except for the charity quilts I make or ones for relatives or friends that know nothing about caring for quilts, I hand quilt. There is a satisfaction to handwork that can't be duplicated on any machine. I worked for almost two years for a Bernina dealer and feel in love with their machines. Since I usually produce at least 20 Linus quilts a month I do a lot of sewing. Those quilts I machine quilt but they are no larger than crib size. I also do very basic straight line quilting every four inches or so using a simple decorative stitch and variegated thread to add a little decoration. I will admit that just attaching the binding by machine to a larger bed size quilt is all I am willing to tackle on a sewing machine, even one as good as my Bernina. The physical effort it takes to constantly adjust the quilt and force it through the machine's throat takes all of the joy out of the task. If you have done handquilting in the past you realize that it also allows you to enjoy conversations, TV, music etc. while getting something accomplished. Just my two cents.

Worth having a Ladies Day out with some friends to travel to a Good Sewing machine Dealer or Quilt shop that has sewing machines.... Make a Day of it....Try all the machines.... For Regular Sewing machines I have Couple of Singers and Domestic, White and the one I have set up is my Husky 140 by Viking Basic sewing, zigzag, stretch stitches and button hole . not for Big quilt projects but does fine with smaller projects like potholders, tote bags etc... and the ever present stack of Mending... :) or several of you go together to buy a nicer machine....?

Where "in the sticks in Indiana" are you. There are a lot of quilt shops around, and I knowpretty much all of them?

Pleas consider looking for a machine with the needle up/down feature, saves a lot of headaches.

A brother is a good machine. But if there's anyway you can do it, get a machine at a dealer rather than amazon. They will provide you with the lessons and service you need, answer questions and probably will have stitched the machine out before selling it to make sure it is running well. And who knows, they may even have a better deal for you! I'm sure lots of people will tell you to buy online, but if we don't help support local brick and mortar dealers, they will soon be gone.

I am a Pfaff person all the way. That being said, you have to chose for yourself what is best for you. I would recomend that you visit several dealers to see what you would like. Each machine has features that you will like. A good dealer is important for learning to get the most from your machine and for routine maintainence and cleaning. Take your time to think about what you want and make a list of features you want ina machine. I love my Pfaff for the duel feed feature. I can sew anything with that machine.