I bought a 7700 earlier this year for quilting, and love it. However, for your purposes, the one thing that I've found disappointing is that it doesn't cope well with several layers: I tried to quilt a top with some bulky seams and my machine didn't like it at all: I ended up with a broken needle and eventually had to use my Singer 201. So if you frequently need to sew several layers, I would definitely test drive this machine before investing such a serious amount of money.