Welcome to the board from Southern California!
I have an expensive Bernina and it does a great job with the 1/4" seams. I know there are a lot of lower priced machines that do a great job with the seams that you need for quilting. I have a regular size machine, I looked into the 9" throat machines but decided that I will later on, someday, buy myself a larger mid to long arm machine for quilting. I don't know if the extra 2" is that much better. Others will be able to answer that better!