I love my Janome 8900 QCP. I believe the 9400 is the upgrade version. Both have the 11" throat which is great. That said, keep up your research and test drive. Find the one that fits you best.

Sit down and figure out what you want the machine to do: is it mainly quilting and sewing, do you like embroidery (not all machines can do embroidery (Janome 8900 and 9400 do not). Is the machine staying home or traveling (weight considerations)? How close is the dealer?

No, they're not. Bernina is a separate entity and although Brother builds the high end Babylock machines, the Tacony Corp. owns Babylock. There is some overlap among all the major manufacturers. Brother and Janome build the Bernina Bernette Deco machines. Janome builds machines for just about everyone, etc....

Cari

I'm a Pfaff girl myself. You will never find anything so handy as the IDT feature. I have had Pfaff so over 20 years and the only thing I have ever done is regular cleaning and tune ups. I would recommend you visit a good dealer. You can try lots of machines and decide which one is best for you. I like to get a feel for the machine as I test them. A good dealer will help you find the one right for you as well as help with using it to the fullest.

I'm also a Pfaff girl. I upgraded my Pfaff to a Performance 5.0 a few years ago. I love it! I think the Performance line is now at 5.2. I'm not interested in an embroidery machine and the Performance was the top of the line Quilting machine by Pfaff. As maryb119 mentioned, the IDT feature is a winner! My prior machine was a Pfaff that I had for about 25 years. The only thing I ever did was regular cleaning. That machine was actually still in great shape, but I wanted to upgrade to more bells and whistles.

Many thanks to everyone who gave a reply! Your input was truly helpful. I spent several hours each day this week going to all the dealers in my area, some of them multiple times. I tried out most of the machines listed here that were in my price range, including the Pfaff 4.2, Janome 6600 & 6700, Babylock Aria, Juki, Brother, Elna, and Bernina. Seeing all those machines and reading online (& watching a bunch of YouTube videos) really helped me narrow down what I wanted. I came very, very close to purchasing a floor model Janome 6600. It was a great price! I didn't read a single bad review of that machine, it was very intuitive to use, and it met all my criteria. However, I had some MAJOR concerns about the dealer...and so I pulled out of the purchase at the last minute.

In the end, I wound up buying the very first machine I had looked at--a Bernina 570QE (without embroidery). I really fell in love with that machine, and the store/dealer was just amazing, for a number of reasons I won't list here. This whole process opened my eyes to how important the dealer is. (I will add that they also offered me the floor model of the 770QE at a steal of a price. I was tempted, but in the end, it was just way more machine than I need.) The whole process was very educational, and I learned a lot about what I wanted and didn't want. I should have done this years ago. Thank you again, everyone, for your help! Happy quilting!

Ohhhh, you're going to love your Bernina!!! It's my very favorite machine made. So happy for you!!!

I am a janome and a bernina gal. I love them both for different reasons. I think you will be happy with your choice. I love the straight stitch of the bernina and I think the bernina feet are hard to beat. They are on sale now, so good time to buy them if you know of ones you want. Wishing you many happy hours with your new machine.

How exciting for you! I look forward to seeing pics of your projects as you go. I am sure you will be very pleased with your new Bernina! Congrats :)

Christine

You may want to wait to see the "Next Generation" Bernina 5 Series machines. They will have the "Dual Feed," which is like a walking foot built-in. You'd want the N.G. 570 for quilting, or the N.G. 590 for embroidery.

I have the brother dreamweaver 3000 plus the Janome 15000. Love both. Glad I was able to get this deal by a lady who decided she couldn't keep these two wonderful machines that r brand new also got her koala cutting table. I got another koala cutting table plus a thread cupboard from another lady who downsized