Hi I just bought the PQ1500...and, so far so good...but as far as you wondering about a machine with a bigger throat area, I have been hearing a lot of great things about the Janome Horizon 7700...it has 11 inch throat...the price was out of my range, but just thought I would let you know about it if you haven't already. Leah Day has done a great video on it, on youtube...and talks about it on her website...