I bought a Janome 8900 a couple of years ago. It is a wonderful sewing and quilting machine. It has all the stitches and feet you could ever need. It has a 11" harp space which gives you lots of room to quilt. It has good lighting, needle up-down, and auto scissors. I don't know what you consider too expensive, but Janome machines are very reasonably priced machines in my opinion. I have quickly learned to FMQ on mine. It does a wonderful job. The machine is very big and heavy, however, and you would not want to take it to classes with you. I recently bought the table that is made for it, and I like it even better now. Good luck in finding the right machine for you!