We have been visiting many of the local quilt / sewing machine shops. One of the brands that interest us is Juki. I don't have a Juki dealer within 50 miles. Would you rule out this brand if you didn't have any dealers in your area?
Other value price point machines that fall within our price / performance criteria are Baby Lock, Brother and Janome. Bernina, Viking and Pfaff make great machines but the pricing is more than we wish to commit to today for the features that we are considering.
Again, thanks for the words of encouragement.
Clay