Lots of good advice here! If you already have a sewing machine, are you able to quilt on it by dropping the feed dogs? I used my vintage straight-stitch-only Singer 301 to learn FMQ, because I could drop the feed dogs, and the stitch quality was also lovely for piecing. I enjoyed quilting on it for one year, and then decided I needed the wide harp space to the right of the needle for larger sized projects. I jumped right up to the Janome Horizon line, was thrilled with the bells and whistles, and love my 8900 for all things quilting. (But I still take the very portable Singer 301 to classes!)