Hello, and Welcome from St. Louis! I have an old Featherweight that I take to classes because they are mostly about straight stitching. I can do most everything on that machine. I can cover the feed dogs and do machine quilting also!
I have a fancy embroidery machine, but do mostly straight sewing, so I don't take advantage of all that it does! I would stick to the good old metal machine. There are still people who can fix them, because they don't need computer knowledge to work on them. You will be surprised at the minimal cost to fixing the old ones compared to the new ones!
When you are ready to get a newer fancy machine, try them out first, and only get what you will use. It is foolish to pay for something you will use only once or twice a year. Find a friend who has one and visit her! :?

Hi Ali--welcome to the board. I have a 9 year old Bernina with some bells and whistles. But I also have a 1957 Singer Featherweight that I just LOVE to sew on!! I take it to classes all the time. She still purrs like a kitten....

Hi and welcome from Mass.

Hi from France!

I have always mostly hand pieced and quilted and just used my old, basic Toyota for attaching borders and binding! BUT... since I joined the board, I have SO many ideas and inspiration that I just have to start machining more (at least piecing and ditch quilting) or I won't get everything done if I live to be 999! So I'm getting a new machine - the Janome 6600MC - which is not cheap but DH says I NEED it so I'm not going to argue with him! I won't leave the hand quilting behind though or EPP because I love doing both in the evening when the telly's on!

K x

Hello from Washington