I have a Viking 875 Quilt and I love it. It has a fairly large throat for fmq. I love how the pressure foot goes down when I touch the foot pedal. I'm not sure if many other machines do that. Then when you stop sewing it raises up a little so you can pivot. The thread cutter I use all the time. Needle down, lots of stitches, buttonholes, several alphabets, etc. I'd say make a list of the features you must have, want to have or would be nice to have. Bring some test fabric with you to sew on, including a quilt sandwich. Use the type of fabric you usually sew on. I find that many of the shops do their test sewing on fabric that's been starched heavily, and it behaves differently than just fabric. If you check out the features online before you go to test drive some machines, you might be able to narrow down your choices, that you do test. Have fun testing.
Last edited by fireworkslover; 12-05-2013 at 08:39 PM.