There is a user group on yahoo for Janome 6500 and 6600.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Janome6500/

I think more people there have the 6600 then the 6500. Ther is a lot of useful information there.

I have the 6500. I have been very happy with it.

Thanks to everyone for the information. I also went to the website and joined the group for 6500 and 6600. Thanks again and I am sure i will get lots of help from this source and of course the most valuable will be all of you my quilting friends... Teresa

I have had the 6600P for a month and have been FMQ a lot! Yesterday I bought the new FM foot for it and it is wonderful. I have heard that you can use the Start/Stop button instead of the pedal and set the speed you want instead of having the stitch regulator. Have not tried it yet, though. The bobbin case with the blue dot is optional if you get the new FM foot. My sales lady said you don't need both, just play with your tension settings.
Have fun with your machine...
judee

Good point Judee, I had forgotten to mention the speed control. For fmq I usually have mine just under half with my foot full down and find that comfortable and easy to control. I haven't done any fmq with the Start/Stop button yet - think I'm too worried to move a hand off the fabric!

I have only used the foot pedal a couple times. i have used the start/stop button since i bought it. i wish i had taken out the knee lift, never used that yet either..they say it is awesoem when your string piecing..i will try it one day.

Hi I have the 6500 and I really love it. I have it on my quilt frame with a Quilter cruise control . But before I got it on my frame I used it a lot. But it is a bit of a over kill machine to have on a frame but it came as a pkg. deal.
Kathy

The 6600p is what I want.....
need a job and car first....
used it at MQX last year, niceee machine:)

My 6600 has never let me down and I have quilted on it, sewn art quilts on it, free motion quilted; just drop the feed dogs. It is endless what you can do. Give it a month and then let us know what you think. Just read your manual and go for it. GG

I saw in one of the blogs- she made applications and sewed on it using fqm with the regular fqm foot but without droping the feed dog. I quilted yesterday a bag using this method - it worked wonderful. I think you can try it for thread painting. Hope it work for you too.

I found the link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD8vC...ature=channel. She is sewing on bernina, I used my jannome 6600