Thank you all so very much! I have a birthday coming up, so I'll decide on something before then. I do think I need a bit more time to determine what features will be important to me in the future. As one of you suggested, I shouldn't just shop for "right now". Honestly, when I started out, I couldn't imagine needing more than a straight stitch for lap quilts and free motion, because that's all I ever intended to do. Surely some of you are laughing heartily at that statement!
But the more I do, the more it "seams" like I want to do.
After many hours of Youtube and internet research, the girl who couldn't sew at all six months ago just broke down her 25 year old Kenmore and fixed it! Evidently the feed dogs were never installed correctly, and after all those years of sitting in a bag, things inside were gunky. So I disassembled it and gave it the cleaning of it's life. Yesterday I actually used it with no issues to applique some flannel pumpkins onto throw pillow covers.