Check out Juki and Baby Lock. Fons & Porter now use Baby Lock, as do Eleanor Burns and Jenny Doan at Missouri Star.
That said, I have a Bernina 440 QE that is my baby, but the throat is too small for me to quilt comfortably. I do like the decorative stitches, because there are times when instead of just doing plain old SITD, I widen the decorative stitches and sew on top of the seams, which makes it more like crazy quilting. I won a Bernina 240 about 3 years ago, and asked what the price was for insurance purposes, and they told me it retailed for $1,400. It uses the same feet, bobbins, etc., as my 440, so I now have spares of everything. Unfortunately, it didn't come with the walking foot, which will run you a pretty penny. The needle up/down feature and the knee lift are both great features, especially if you are doing machine applique. However, I had to learn to use the pedal with my left foot, as I couldn't coordinate the pedal and the knee both with the right leg. I guess I'll never be a drummer, either. LOL
Watson's mom is right. Keep your Brother as a back up (in case your new machine has to go into the shop) and as a travel machine for retreats and classes. It never hurts to have an extra machine around the house (at last count, I have 12, and only one of them doesn't work).