I have been very happy with all my Viking machines......congratulations on your graduation from nursing school. I am an RN and am retired. I worked mostly in the operating room. What area are you going to work in?

Congratulations!!...What a nice gift.

Research all the major brands: Pfaff, Janome, Bernina, Viking and see what you can get for that price. Make a list of features and compare. You will be happy with whatever you get.

Congratulations, we need nurses and God bless you for it!!! My workhorse for making quilts is the Janome 6600. I have four machines and that is my 100% favorite and so reliable. It also has some built in embroidery stitches too. I love the automatic thread cutter. Mine is five years old and never had a problem with it. Oh, I like the built in walking foot too. And it sells for $1400.00 depending on where you live. There are lots of good machines to choose from, but this is my baby. C.

CONGRATULATIONS, Nurse! That's a major accomplishment in itself and I know your proud that you did it!!! As for the machine - take your time and try out several (including a couple of vintage if you can) and go for the largest harp area - that means more than fancy stitches and alot of the little extras that the big name machines offer. Good luck in your search as you happily hunt down THE machine for you!

test drive machines, then decide. but, I do like my Janome 6600 for piecing and quilting. MY old Viking is great too.

Congrats on on graduating. I am an RN, retired after 30 years. Spent most of them in Labor and Delivery. It has been a wonderful career and there are so many diverse areas that you can work in. Moved 6 times with my husband's career and I had no trouble getting hired in the job and hospital that I wanted. Do you have a specialty area that you want to work in?

There are so many good choices out there for machines. Even though you only piece now, you are very likely going to want to expand your skills. I mainly piece now but the features I wanted were: needle down option, feed dogs that lower, IDT (called that on Pfaff, I'm sure that other machines have different names for it), auto needle threader and large throat space. I have a Pfaff Quilter's Expressions 4.0--I think that is what it is called but it isn't in front of me to check. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Buy from a dealer vs online or at Sam's or Costco. You want a place and person you can go to with question or problems. Try a bunch out. And remember that you are probably going to want to buy more feet for the machine at some point, so check out the price of accessories because they can vary a great deal. I have never paid over $30 for a foot for my Pfaff.

Happy shopping and have fun!

Congratulations on your nursing degree and good luck in your future job. Wow, you really got quite a bit of money to play around with for your sewing machine. If you are mostly going to be doing piece work, why don't you get a featherweight or some other vintage machine? They are supposed to be real good for that and then you could get another machine that could do other things. That way you have a backup in case your main machine has to go into the shop.

Congrats on your nursing degree! I've been an oncology nurse for the past 15 years, and love it. I started quilting about 3 years ago because I realized I really needed an outlet from the stress. Quilting has been so cathartic and therapeutic for me, as it will for you. What field are you going into?
What a lovely gift!!! I agree with the ladies who say to get a machine that you can grow into...I started with a very basic Kenmore and quickly outgrew it. Last year I bought the Janome Magnolia for $350... Love that machine, but now that I'm mastering piecing, I would lime to try embroidery. I never thought I would get so into quilting!! And yes, save some for fabric as it can get pricey. Good Luck!

Congratulations on graduation from nursing school!! Great job! :thumbup: :thumbup: