Talking about a workhorse macnine, while my husband was on an unaccompanied overseas tour of duty a hundred years ago, I bought a Viking portable. It was a plain Jane machine, but it would sew through anything. I wish I had it now. A year or two after my husband came home, he traded my Viking for a machine in a cabinet. By that time I was pregnant again, and he thought the Viking too heavy for me to be lifting. I don't remember the brand name of the machine he traded for. All I remember is that it didn't last long. I'm now using a Singer Schoolastic and am satisfied with it. Will keep using it until they make a sewing machine whose stitches look like hand quilting.