I like to buy the inexpensive machines with decorative stitches I like and sew the devil out of them. If they conk out after a couple of years I don't fret over it. The Brother 420 has lasted over five years so far so the machine has cost me $50 a year and will only get less each year. I don't baby it and try all types of threads and techniques with it.

That's probably what I'll end up doing. The stitch that I thought was a serpentine stitch on the Janome, wasn't. It seems that the only Janomes that have that stitch are more than I'm prepared to pay right now. The Brother that I posted a link to seems to get decent reviews and I found several places where I could buy it for less than on Amazon.

I looked at a few different models, but many of them are sold out - for making masks, I imagine.

i love the multi zig zag for making jelly roll rugs. I widen and lengthen it.

I think my Pfaff has a serpentine stitch but I have not used it. I do a version of this stitch but in more of a free motion style. It is particularly useful for quick small to medium sized quilts. I purposely do not try to make the curves exact. In the end it appears to be textured somewhat like the bark of a tree. I keep my width to about 3 inches max, but some curves come in to about an inch apart from time to time. The quilting as a whole is not too dense. I would put it in the medium density category. I will go a searching for the serpentine stitch on my machine and play around with that. It may just give me one more option when quilting. Thank for the ideas, quilty friends.

I have a Janome Memory Craft 6500 that has a serpentine stitch on it but have never used it. It shows the stitch to be #25 in Mode 2. I'll have to give it a try.

I have Juki F600, but I use the the serpentine stitch all of the time for my donation quilts. I widen and lengthen it. It gives the quilting definition and is so quick and easy.

I did some more searching online and it seems that the Brother will be the one that I get.

One of the things that I'm wondering and a little concerned about is the rounded off harp area on the Brother machine, especially since I want it mainly for quilting, not piecing. Large quilts will go to the longarmer, but I would like to use it for twin size quilts.

For those of you that have Brothers, do you have a problem getting the quilt through that opening?

The largest quilt I've made is lap size on my Brother cx155LA. It looks much like the project runway and quilt models. Fan folding rather than rolling helps

another option would be to look at used trade-in machines....my Bernina 630 I traded in for my new 570 had a nice serpentine stitch...and part of me really wishes I had kept the 630 as It had a way nicer straight stitch for piecing and wasn't as fussy as the new 570...which has been in the shop three times in the past year and which I got back about a month ago...but haven't wound up the courage to try it yet.

Ha! Funny you should say that! 😄

My husband and I have been talking about this all morning, and we both came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be happy with one of the less expensive smaller machines.

My vintage machines have spoiled me, quality-wise, and I really don't want something that may or may not last. And I really don't want something that can't be repaired if something goes wrong, so it ends up in a landfill.

This has made me really think about what I want, and why I'm now considering a computerized machine. The serpentine stitch... is just the tip of the iceberg.

I love my vintage machines and they are here to stay. I love to piece on them, I love how solid they are, the stitch quality, and that I can fix them myself. But they have their limitations.

I want something with a bigger harp space so that it's easier to stuff the quilt through. My birthday is next month and it's the "Magic Medicare" birthday. I need something that's going to be easier on the old bod.

Though I've sewn for around 40 years, I've been quilting for about 7 years and I want to start challenging myself, so I want a machine that will let me do that. I'm ready for something with a few more features.

Fortunately, my husband (aka The Enabler 😁) would rather spend more to get a better quality and more full-featured machine that I will love and use, and doesn't want me to settle.

So I'm going to call a local Janome dealer, tell him what I want, and see what he can do for me. 😊