I bought a TOL Bernina 180 back around 2000. I have always loved that machine. It still does great on everything. I also bought a Brother 1500, which is a straight stitch only machine before the Bernina. I mostly piece and tried to learn FMQ on the Brother. I had never bought a Janome, but bought one in 2013. I got the Janome 8900. That is an awesome machine! It is a nice heavy machine with MANY extra feet that come with it. It has a wide 11 inch harp space. I bought it to quilt larger quilts since it has the wide harp. I tried to FMQ on it and, WOW, my stitches looked great from the very first moment! I was amazed because I had been trying to FMQ for quite a while. I thought the price was very reasonable too. So, yes, I would do it again. None of my machines have been picky with threads. I do have a featherweight as a back up or travel machine.