Just go on patternreview and see if people like the singer. Some models are more popular than others. I love my brothers, it is all I have had for the cheap to the TOL and have loved them all. for the price of the confidence quilter I would look at the brother PC-420 as it is a slightly larger harpp than your walmart brothers, has a good amount of features, a metal frame, more heavy duty than the walmart brothers without being too expensive you can find them on amazon for 400 and it is a good machine you can grow into and not be looking for more in a year or 2. If you do do walmart I love my SQ-9050 I got there as well but it is not heavy duty but is a good beginner machine with most quilting feet included and most basic quilting features wanted, needle down, drop feed, adjustable stitch width and length, along with a decent number of stitches. There are also a lot of good basic janomes out there, that brand seems to be another popular low end machine
http://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingMachine/