I own a good number of machines but piece on a machine off of Craigslist that does only straight stitch forward and backwards.
I second the Janomes. I several of them from basic to fancy. Most of my friends and my DD sew on a Janome Jem Silver. They bought it with the quilter package. They all bought it to get into quilting and were going to buy a fancy machine later on. All of them liked the Janome Jem so much they never upgraded. The plus point too is that it is portable as it is a 3/4 size machine.
If the quilting package is with it it will have the feet for free motion and a walking foot. I has a wonderful quilting stitch.