I have a Tin Lizzie sit down and love her. I almost bought a HQ but am glad I got the Lizzie. I really really like her a lot.
Having said that... Bailey didn't have their machine available in a table at the time and my husband is not a handy kind of a guy (let's not talk about the bat house incident...) Bailey now offers a table so the machine and table is almost half that of a Lizzie.. much more affordable.
I had a Bailey on a frame because I hated basting quilts. I always had puckers and didn't know how to get past that. Now that I table baste I haven't had a single problem and it takes me less than an hour to baste a huge quilt.
There are a lot of sit downs out there - Sunshine, Bailey, Tin Lizzie, HQ Sweet 16/Babylock Tiara, the George, etc... each one would probably make you happy in the end. I went with the Lizzie because I liked the orientation of the machine. It also comes with a huge flip up table extension on the back of the table so when you are quilting it will support the quilt. I also got a skinny folding table to go to the left of it to support the quilt more on the left side. It is a great set up and more affordable than the HQ and others... the Bailey and Sunshine are both about half the price of the Lizzie or HQ.
Do you have a local dealer of any big machines? Maybe who has service nearby will help decide what to get
