Originally Posted by Annaquilts
I have a Janome 6500 and happy with it. I second looking for a machine with a large throat space. The 6500 has a lot of extra that I do not use.
Janome 6500
Forgot to add-
It has a larger opening.
Thread cutter
Knee lifter
came with a "quilting"table
it came with all the goodies you'd need for home quilting
I am not sure if I could live without the larger opening, knee lifter or thread cutter anymore. The tread cutter is awesome with quilting. I have used the machine extensively for both free motion quilting, walking foot quilting and binding and piecing. I sew a lot and it pretty much is all quilting!
I think the 6500, 6600 and 6700 are all similar but everytime they were upgraded a little. I think the 6600 is the first one with a build in type of walking foot. If you are looking at this machine I would probably look at the 6600 or 6700 because of the newer features but I have seen nice deals for the 6500 online.