Originally Posted by Rachelcb80

LoL, I've been giggling since I left the store yesterday. :)

The 820 is Bernina's biggest machine but it's the one without the embroidery. The 830 is the embroidery one. I can't begin to tell you all it does (because I don't even know yet!) but it has 12" of throat space and can sew something like 1,100 stitches per minute (that's supposed to help with the machine keeping up with your FMQ'ing speed). It has all sorts of nifty (but unnecessary) features like real auto needle threading (literally, I push one button and the machine goes through this whole sequence and ta-da, threaded needle!). There's 28 quilting stitches and 234 decorative stitches plus button holes, which I intend to use at some point, though I never used them on my 440. :P There's a million ways you can customize the settings and again though unnecessary, it's so very fun. You can even program a message for the machine to show on screen during it's warm up cycle. (Okay, so you've been able to do that on cell phones for a long time, but not on sewing machines! :P )

Anyways, mainly I wanted it for the extra throat space which I could have got with the Janome Horizon at a cheaper price but I really love my Bernina dealer and wasn't at all crazy about the local dealer that sells Janomes (and other brands). A few other minor things (placement of bobbin and speed control) sealed my decision. (Disclaimer: not at all saying anything bad about Janomes. I know they're wonderful machines. What I wanted in a machine just happened to be available in the Bernina, but it doesn't mean I think less of the Janome.)

Originally Posted by Rachelcb80

LoL, I've been giggling since I left the store yesterday. :)

The 820 is Bernina's biggest machine but it's the one without the embroidery. The 830 is the embroidery one. I can't begin to tell you all it does (because I don't even know yet!) but it has 12" of throat space and can sew something like 1,100 stitches per minute (that's supposed to help with the machine keeping up with your FMQ'ing speed). It has all sorts of nifty (but unnecessary) features like real auto needle threading (literally, I push one button and the machine goes through this whole sequence and ta-da, threaded needle!). There's 28 quilting stitches and 234 decorative stitches plus button holes, which I intend to use at some point, though I never used them on my 440. :P There's a million ways you can customize the settings and again though unnecessary, it's so very fun. You can even program a message for the machine to show on screen during it's warm up cycle. (Okay, so you've been able to do that on cell phones for a long time, but not on sewing machines! :P )

Anyways, mainly I wanted it for the extra throat space which I could have got with the Janome Horizon at a cheaper price but I really love my Bernina dealer and wasn't at all crazy about the local dealer that sells Janomes (and other brands). A few other minor things (placement of bobbin and speed control) sealed my decision. (Disclaimer: not at all saying anything bad about Janomes. I know they're wonderful machines. What I wanted in a machine just happened to be available in the Bernina, but it doesn't mean I think less of the Janome.)

Originally Posted by Kas

You forgot the giant bobbin! I wish I had one just for that and the extra space in the throat. My biggest pet peeve about fmq quilting is that the bobbin runs out too fast and usually at an inopportune time!