Thanks Iceblossom! I had a 25 year old kenmore that my husband bought me before we were married, just so I could hem pants for our soon to-be family... as it turned out, that machine served me well, and I made many things, including costumes as well as clothing. I decided to upgrade a few years ago and sold that machine at a garage sale for$40!!! I wish I had it now, in the interim... as I try to decide on a new machine! I totally agree that a good straight stitch is what I mostly need, but even though I only quilt 70x90 size or under, having a large throat area makes it so much easier! I had a lot of stitch choices with my quantum machine but honestly didn’t use more than a few of them... and since I mostly used my walking foot, I probably didn’t realize how poorly my feed dog function was working!