Hi,
I just purchased the Brother PQ1500s. It will be used for piecing & free motion quilting. I went to a friend's home and sewed on her 1500 & the equivalent Juki. These are both machines that only straight stitch but will sew at a high rate of speed. I did a lot of research prior to testing the machines out. There are 2 vendors on Ebay that sell the Brother machine for under $600. I own 2 high end sewing machines that embroider and do everything one could want but I just felt it was important to dedicate a (workhorse) machine to free motion quilting & piecing.
HTH
Min