For straight piecing, I still prefer a Singer Featherweight. However, I own a Bernina 440 QE for piecing / quilting, and I have another Bernina (forget which model) which is a sewing/embroidery combo. I like having two machines, that way, I can embroider something and still be piecing, and I can leave the embroidery machine set up rather than having to change from sewing to embroidery and back. I don't think I've ever seen a machine that will do everything I want as well as these three machines do them individually.