I teach sewing to 9 year olds to adults. We purchased 10 new Janome Jem Gold 660 machines this year. Our girls love the machines because they are so easy to use. They were $199 with no shipping charge. Excellent machine that will last your daughter for many, many years. A person in our quilting group has had one for 10 years. No repairs and she does a lot of sewing/quilting.

Here is a link to purchase them from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Janome-Jem-Gol...anome+jem+gold

Good luck and congratulations to our daughter for wanting to learn the life long skill of sewing/quilting.

My DGD first machine was a real one but cute. The Janome Hello Kitty Green 3/4 size machine. It sews great, just like the Janome Jem but has an optional no petal needed to sew button. The newer White Hello Kitty machine is even more advanced.

Is this the one that is greenish/turquoise like? Where is the button for the no petal option? That is exactly what I want for my DGD because she will sew on my Husqvarna but I really don't want her on my expensive machine plus we could both sew at the same time. I was looking at pics online and can't tell and it doesn't say anything about that feature? Thanks