I am a hard core Brother fan(I have 24 Brother machines) but I'm totally sold on Janome embroidery machines(have 3 of them). The new Janome MC500e comes with a large 8x11 quilting hoop. While I've made a few quilts and wall hangings with embroidered blocks I haven't yet tried quilting a quilt with my embroidery machines but it is on my bucket list. I do some FM work on my domestics and also have a long arm, I think of using the embroidery machine as just another skill, another option for quilting.

Cari

I don't think a sewing/embroidery machine will do what you want. If you use the quilting patterns with the embroidery arm you are limited to the size of your hoop. My largest hoop is 6x6. So if I want to quilt a 12x12 quilt block, that means I have to line up the design on the fabric and rehoop the block 4 times to quilt the whole block. So this is a whole new skill set for me. Since I already have the embroidery arm on my machine, someday I'll probabably start doing quilting on my machine, but I'm a hand quilter at heart, so I'm not very motivated to learn that skill.

Sharing my experience
I have an embroidery machine. Made a basic quilt for ny D-GD's 14th b day last year and in a bind (pressed for time)decided to buy an inexpensive quilt stitch block that fit perfectly over the rectangle batik blocks and I quilted the entire thing w the embroidery machine using the hoop.
Easy easy the work was setting up the hoop but the machine did all the work and I liked the perfect stitches -to me it looks amazing.

I posted pics of it on this QB just can't access it with this tablet I'm using

It certainly can be done or at minimum can be used in sections of the quilt to compliment any other method of quilting.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...e-t271909.html

Attaching link above showing purchased quilting feather stitch with my embroidery machine.

I am not entirely happy with my FMQ either but I keep trying and it is getting better..I do enjoy straight line quilting with a walking foot and you can do many designs this way including wavy lines and pointed sharp lines. I do a lot of QAYG so that it is easier to manage small sections when straight line quilting. I have found this a good solution. I think the machines that do quilting are usually the very expensive one with a lot of throat space...most older embroidery machines are not suitable for quilting.

I have used my epic embroidery feature on the last two quilts I made. Did not have any trouble. Quilted areas of the sanwiched quilt at a time. I used patterns made for quilting and ones that I worked up on my premier embroidery software. It really turned out nice, will definitely do it again! These quilts were embroidered and FMQ. I like to embroider, love figuring out patterns so, no boredom here!!

I use my HV Designer to quilt blocks combined with WF and FM-all in one quilt. I like how fast the motifs are sewn and the hooping goes quickly. I do usually get bored-plan only 10-12 in a day-but sew on my other machine while the embroidery is being stitched to alleviate that. One could cut, etc instead.

Sewing with nancy did a series of videos on this. I am pretty sure they are available on her site for free to watch. I think the PBS site is where I found her.