I started with a Singer, it's about 30yrs old, has lots of fancy stitches. About 5 yrs ago I decided to get into real quilting, you know, HST and flying gueese(yuck) lots of civil war quilts so I found a machine at Sears that someone marked wrong so I got it half price, it's a Kenmore made by Janome. Sews great. about 4 yrs ago I got the Viking Ruby and then 1 yr later I traded it in for the Diamond Deluxe. I did not pay full price for any of these machines, they were listed as slightly used so I got the warranty, cases, etc. I love my diamond deluxe, my kenmore Im giving to my daughter and my singer to my daughter in law. I also bought the TOL serger (ovation) this yr and so far have had classes on making 2 jackets, table runner, place mats, quilts. Right now I'm making a fleece log cabin full size blanket. It works great, my friend thought I was crazy because she had tried to make on on her sewing machine and it was a mess. You should of seen her face when she saw mine. I do have another serger, 2nd to TOL, I bought it right before I went to the serger class for Brother and fell in love. Knowing that I could sell my viking for what I paid for it, I got my Brother. I just have to advertise it, its still in box and never registered so should have full warranty. It is a great machine but the air threading was great but what got me really hooked on my brother was the wave stitch, It's great and only Brother has it.