We had some craziness at work today that kept me from going to lunch, so I got off work early instead. This gave me the opportunity to go to the store that carries the Husqvarna before they closed. Debbie is super sweet and suggested 3 machines to me. First I tried the Opal 650, which I like, but I wish the bed were larger, which is $650. Another lady came in, who is a regular customer, and the three of us were talking, and I told Debbie about my apprehension for FMQ and my debate between a sewing only and a sewing/embroidery combo machine, so she asked if she could show me the Topaz. Oh wow! To say I was in love in an understatement. They have a 200x200mm hoop that is made for quilting, and she showed me pictures of some of the machine quilting designs you can do with it. Now it may not be good for trying to do a king size quilt or anything nearly that large, but anything form a throw blanket down I'd probably be able to do. Two drawbacks are that it's $1999, and if I measured right, it may be 1" too long for the spot on my sewing table. So, to give me a larger throat, in a smaller footprint, she showed me the Eden Rose 250C, which is on sale for $999. I tried it out, and the only benefit I noted was the larger throat.
I told the man how much they were and what the options were and he said if it's what I want, get it. I told him if I did, that would probably cover every holiday and gift giving time from now through Mother's day. His response was "hey, I'd be off the hook!" I'm going to measure again & think about it. She said she only had the floor model of the Topaz, and she'd give me $100 off if I wanted it. It doesn't have that many hours on it.