I have a Viking Platinum - forget which number though. It's older than the Sapphire. My friend just bought one of those about a year ago. We both love our Vikings. They have a 'scant' 1/4" needle position, so no need for a 1/4" foot. Neither she nor I do machine quilting so I can't answer your questions regarding feet for that. I have a ton of fancy stitches that I never use. Don't remember how hers has. I've had mine close to 10 years and have never had a problem. Don't even think I've had it in for service. Love the needle up/down; auto tension and many other features. I paid $1000-$1200 at the time and my friend paid about the same for hers recently. Mine also has a start/stop button and speed control for that so I would imagine MQ'ing would be reasonably easy. I think the Sapphire has the same feature. I looked at many machines before buying mine and for the features I wanted, I found it to be the best bang for the buck. No buyers remorse here at all.