Opinions for a Quilter Newbie, which machine to recommend less than $200.00
 

I want to suggest to my granddaughter, the name of a good starter quilting machine for less than $200.00. I have looked on Amazon (where she will order it) and am inclined to the Brother XR9500PRW (Project Runway). Would like your input. thank you.

I bought the brother cs6000i after Christmas and have loved it. It looks similar to the one you have picked so far. I paid less than $150 for it and free shipping on Amazon. No problems at all. I have completed 7 quilts to date...but none of them have been really big, maybe 54 x 70 is the largest. I love the machine and it's features. Good luck

There is a nice Janome machine on ebay for about that price and it has 4.8 out of 5 stars. I would pick a Janome over a Brother, personally. I've had a brother (from walmart-so maybe it was a junky one) and hated it.

http://www.amazon.com/Janome-2212-Se...eywords=janome

also this one which has 4.6 out of 5 stars:
http://www.amazon.com/Janome-2212-Se...eywords=janome

I have seen a lot of positive comments about the cs6000i on this board, and the reviews on Amazon are good too.

Edit: I should add that the Janome gets great reviews here too.

I also have the Brother cs6000i.....Love it! I have sewed everything from mug rugs to quilting a king size quilt on it! It just keeps humming away! I clean it well after every project! Good luck and welcome to wonderful world of quilting!! ENJOY!!!!!

I have a cheap Walmart Brother- been sewing on it for about 7 years now, without ever servicing it. I paid under $100 for it. I sometimes sew several hours a day usually, since it is my sanity saver since I have been out of work on disability.The only thing I have not done on it is quilt- I quilt by hand..But I am going to try that next when I can afford to buy the proper foot.

What about finding a nice vintage machine on Craig's list?

I have a Project Runway and it works great!

I say, go with your gut instincts on this one. Most of the time, the Brother is an excellent machine. I had a bad experience with one -- it died at 7 months of age. Repair would have cost me more than I paid for it. But here's the good part. That Brother was a cheap machine (relatively speaking - about $200), and on it I refreshed my sewing skills and started quilting. What I learned is that I love, love, love to quilt! By the time it died, I had already learned so much, and one of them was about what kind of sewing machine I really wanted. I found it on Craig's list, and never looked back. It's a Janome MC9700. Just love it.

So my point is, let her learn on a cheap machine. I'll bet the problems I had are pretty rare; it wasn't my first Brother, and I bought it because I'd loved the other one I had. Give her time to learn what kind of sewing she really wants to do, and she could get years and years of sewing out of the machine. On the other hand, if she discovers she doesn't like sewing/quilting that much, her investment in a machine won't be a financial bust.

i got this one, too, but at walmart. i really love it for an inexpensive lightweight machine