Yes, I am definitely seeing how having more than one machine helps a lot! As I said, I use my old Rocketter for piecing (it stitches beautiful, straight, perfect 1/4" seams :-) - though surely not as fast as modern machines, but honestly, who pieces at 1500 spm?)
For FMQ and applique' I have been using my daughter's Brother 1900SE (which we got her for Xmas last year because she is getting into embroidery but needed both sewing and embroidery abilities). I do love using her Brother - it's very user-friendly, sews beautifully, and when doing applique', I often just set the speed control to very slow and just "steer" - so awesome. Someday however she WILL leave the house LOL (she is commuting to college right now) and take it with her.......
Also, her Brother makes short work of heavy duty jobs - it handles 7 layers of denim without blinking (not that I would ever need to do that, but....this thing is a BEAST).
Finally, I never realized the size of the feed dogs could make such a difference in the accuracy of 1/4" seams....thanks for that tip!