Have my treadle, but was looking at ones I can move around the house to sew on, and would actually like to be able to do the quilting of the top on afer getting it made. Thought the Janome 1600, but found out the bobbin is very hard to get to and it's hard to thread.
Then I found about automatic cutters above and below your work, and auto threaders, and easy access bobbins. Oh, and lets not forget automatic thread tension (not sure what that ones for) Is there such a machine out therer for making a quilt that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? If so, would someone tell me all about them? And do you really need anything other than a straight stitch?
My head is realine, Thank you. Jack

It helps a lot to determine your price range first. No use looking at a $2,000 machine with lots of bells and whistles if your budget is $500!

Also, consider going to a dealer and purchasing a used machine. Many people trade in a perfectly good older model for the newest top-of-the-line, so you can usually get a lot more for your money that way.

I wanted a heavy duty, modern sewing machine for quilting and my budget was $400. I soon discovered that wasn't enough $. So I bought a used 2042 Phaff for $400. I'm very pleased. I would suggest that you find a dealer that you would love to buy from and talk about what you really want on a machine. He might just call with a real gem of a machine, like mine did.

I'm also interested in this question. I've been wanting to buy a new machine but get so confused when I hear all of you talking about different ones.

Without a price range, it's very hard to make even suggestions of what to look at.

I would just get a simple one. at least to begin with. just something for 100 or maybe 200. something real cheep. I had a singer for years that I would pull out and use occasionally. now that I am getting more into sewing I got a Janome sewist 521. It has about 20 or so stitches i think and a drop in bobbin and it does reverse and forward. it isn't self threading or self cutting. I can adjust top tension but not sure about the bottom like on my old singer. I like it because there are a few decorative stitches but most the time I do straight stitch. I am new to quilting and am working on FMQ but for now when I quilt my couple I use this one decorative stitch and use the SID method of sewing. Like Prism66 said, I would look at used older models for a sewing machine. this way you can get one for a reasonable amount and play around with it and see after a couple of months what you really need and don't want in the machine. but that is just me. hope this helps

My budget as well was going to be $400, then was told I needed a Janome 1600 series and found a website that sells a new one for $579. Thought "ok, found my machine even if it doesn't sew anything but straight stitches". Then I read some negative reviews, mostly people didn't like that the bobbin was 4" inside the machine and they had to reach in from the side to get the bobbin placed. They made it sound very difficult so that shot that one down. Right now, $600 is pushing it for me, but a used machine would be fine as long as it was in good working order. As for the different stitches, maybe down the road??
Thanks for the responses and I will have to check out the Pfaffs
Jack

Phaff, sorry. And I will check out the Janome 521

In addition to budget, you also need to determine which features you need, want and might need or want. If you know you want the machine to do a blanket stitch for applique that will rule out all of the straight stitch only machines.

For an all around quilting & sewing machine that may or may not ever get put on a machine quilting frame, I think you're going to have to really watch craigslist, ebay and the sew-its-for-sale type yahoo groups to get anything less than $1,000 and if you want new--you're looking at almost $2,000. But that is for my dream machine. Your dreams could be considerably cheaper than mine--LOL!

Have you considered looking for a used Pfaff on Ebay that has the IDT foot, this allows for sewing on multiple layers of fabric and would work well for quilting. Ebay has a few of the Pfaff 1222E's for sale which have the IDT foot that may be in your price range.