Originally Posted by donnajean
The best thing is to go to a Sewing machine shop or a JoAnn's & try a couple different machines out. There are all kind of price ranges. You don't have to spend a lot of money for basic quilting. Basics are a 1/4" foot, a walking foot, & capability of dropping feeddog for free motion quilting. Don't just watch them sew, try it yourself.
This is very sound advice, it's what I would tell you also. I find that the two features that I can't live without any more,(I'm spoiled now) are the ability to drop my feed dogs a,d the thread cutter. But there are many inexpensive machines out there, and if your just learning they will do for the time being. You can always trade up, or buy a used higher end model, they are out there you just have to look. My friend got a Janome 6500 for 375 dollars, and it was barely used, they wanted to trade it in for the newer machine. She loves it.