I just purchased a Ellisimo Gold II last month, and I just love it. I thought I had wanted to upgrade to the Janome 15000, but after a class with the Ellisimo I fell in love with it. It sews so much nicer than my Janome 7700, I have perfect 1/4" seams without having to move the needle, & that is one thing I hated about the Janome. It is nice to be able to move the needle, but for me it wasn't a cool thing I wanted to do. Even when I used the accufeed 1/4" foot I had to move the needle even more to get a good 1/4" seam. The Ellisimo has more bells & whistle than anyone could ask for, it comes with 4 hoop sizes, largest being an 8 x 12, as an option you can get a border embroidery frame to do a continuous border. Right now this is Baby Locks top of the line combo machine & I got it for thousands less than either of the top of the line Janome's. I have noticed on the yahoo groups that there are many more complaints about problems with Janome machines than there ever are with the Baby Locks. I was a Janome snob, but not anymore, I fell in love all over again with my Baby Lock. Thinking of finding my 7700 a new home, maybe!

My sister just purchased the Baby Lock Ellisimo gold.... what a machine! I strongly suggest you give that one a test drive.

I agree. In my opinion Janome just can't be beat. Super large hoops on the 12000 & 15000. Love the embroidery arm on the back. Don't have to remove it to do regular sewing. A win win. BTW, I've had my 12000 for app 2 years and wouldn't upgrade. It's all that I could ever want in a machine.