I'm a mechanical machine person, I have 2 of them, my previous machine was Singer 5830C, it has 5 stitches, a 4-step buttonhole & stretch stitch. It's a great machine and actually the one I prefer to FMQ on at the moment. About 3 years ago I bought a Janome HD3000 and I'm very happy with it. It's got 18 stitches, one-step buttonhole and it handles thick things like bag handles and large quilts very well, for the moment I'm doing SITD with it but I'm working on learning to FMQ with it. I got it from SewVacDirect for 350 and I love it, I put around 30ish hrs a week on it and it's going strong.