I used to be a staunch Bernina supporter but the 880 cured me of that. I always loved the way the Bernina made a perfect stitch but that was not enough for me with the 880. I found the one I had to be overly engineered and very picky and frustratingly sensitive. I would not sew certain threads and if you lost or broke a thread you had to peel back the entire front cover to search for it. I had to constantly turn off functions just to make the thing work...thread sensor, thread cutter, etc. It did do a nice embroider when that was used but I don't use that feature so often. Every malfunction needed a two hour trip over the mountain to the dealer, a drop off and later a return trip. Finally I found myself sitting down to sew and dreading to turn on the machine, for fear of what will go wrong now. Finally I sold it, took a loss and used the money to buy a Viking Ruby. I like the Ruby just fine, it will take any thread I throw at it, and the dealer is just a half hour away. Maybe your experience will be better, there are some who just love the 880 and will recommend it to you, good for them. I had another more disappointing experience. Now I sew on the Viking for piecing and embroidery and a Janome 770 for quilting as it has that lovely 11inch harp space. Good luck to you and whatever machine you choose. I hope it works well for you. This is just my experience and I still do believe that Bernina makes a great machine, I just believe that the top of the line machines are seriously over engineered.