I bought a cheap little Brother XR9000 (right around $200) which they don't make anymore, but there are similiar models available. I bought it about a year & a half ago because I wanted to learn to quilt. I love the features and especially bought it for the drop feed so I could learn to FMQ. It has a ton of decorative stitches which I seldom use, but it's nice that they're there. Also, has alphabet & numbers, but they are at a fixed size which it so tiny that I never use them, and to me is a wasted feature. This little machine sews like a charm, but the throat space (5" to 5 1/2" from the needle to the body) is way too small to do medium to large quilts (unless you work very hard at it...ask me how I know...ha) and so I tell anyone that asks me to ALWAYS look at machines that have a large throat space just to make your quilting easier. I bought an old 15/125 Singer, because it has 7" of throat space & try to do all my FMQ on this machine. It's a work horse, but still I want more throat space....Dreaming of a long arm!