rryder

Hi all,
In my continuing quest for a machine with a larger throat space than what I've now got I've recently seen 2 machines that with some stretching could be in my budget. They are the Brother VQ2400 and the Bernina B740. If I want a machine with a dealer nearby then I'm really limited to Brother or Bernina. There is a Viking dealer in the local Joanne fabric store, but I've heard there are problems with getting maintenance/repairs done in a timely fashion since they get sent out of town.

Anyway, I've looked at the VQ2400 at the local Brother dealer and did a little FMQ with it, however it was mounted in their fabric frame, so I didn't get to test drive it out of the frame. If I get serious about it, then of course I'll do that since it's doubtful I could afford the machine and the fabric frame.

I've also test driven the B790 and the B740 at the local Bernina dealer. I tried the B790 with BSR but having spent a lot of years FMQ without BSR, I found that I didn't like it (the BSR that is) and I don't do embroidery and the B790 is well out of my budget, they didn't have a B770 in, so I decided to look at the B740 which I think I liked. However, I'm wondering if anyone here has used it for FMQ--I've read that some folks have problems with it bird nesting in the bobbin specifically when they quilt spirals.

I'm also wondering about durability on both the Brother VQ2400 and the Bernina B740 since they're relatively new machines. And, how well do they each handle the thickness when binding?

If anyone has any input on either of these machines, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,
Rob