Love the quilt your daughter made.
At the moment I have 3 Brother machines, and I like them all. The manuals are very well written and don't skip on the basics of sewing. One is a very basic mechanical, with about 10 stitches. I keep it in NJ for when I visit. It sews well and has a nice straight stitch.
The other two - one is brother SE 350. I've had it for about 2 years and it has spoiled me with the little things - like the thread cutter, needle up/down button, etc. I've never used it's embroidery, so can't speak to that, but otherwise, it's a great machine.
Also bought a Brother with a 1/3 larger throat. I like it - lots of nice features and I really like the extra space in the throat.
I had a Brother machine with 80 stitches, and beat that machine up pretty badly because I was teaching myself to sew and knew nothing about sewing machines. It lasted 6 years, and died an unnatural death. We were traveling with it and DH packed it in the back of the car. I didn't check the packing job...when we unpacked the car, it fell on it's head. That was the end of it.
None of these machines cost more than $350. The mechanical was $75, and they have machines that cost less, but they are extremely bare-bones.
A friend of mine who is a Singer fan recently bought a Brother because her Singer needed servicing and she couldn't get to the dealer. Her reaction? "I love it!"