No machine rec (mine is a Singer 201, as basic as you can get while keeping the motor)

But if you want to check out a couple of brands at once, keep an eye out for quilting/embroidery conventions in your area. They'll have booths for several companies and you can do direct comparisons and talk to the reps about any specific features you might want.

The throat space on my 2200 QVP Mini has quite a bit more throat space than 9", Rob. It's about 13 or 14" wide and also better than 6" tall. That extra height really give me more space.

I have the brother pq1500 mounted on a frame. I’ve had it about 7 yrs and have only had 1 repair. The motor went out about 4 mos ago but it only cost me $150.00 to replace. Eats any thread I feed it, don’t have to mess with tension much (except for humidity in the hot summer months) only downfall is the 9” throat space. If you do a 100” line quilt you can only do about a 3” border since a lot of the throat space is taken up by the finished quilt. You can do larger borders you just have plan on doing them in multiple passes. You roll a lot and there’s is more thought in designs BUT it is very workable. I have the grace SR2 frame which is no longer available but the newer QZone Queen is very similar. They are less expensive than other machines and have the features you are looking for.

Love my low end and TOL brothers so for me it would be a midrange brother.

Hi everyone,
After reading through all your helpful suggestions, I found a local Juki dealer and came home with a TL-18 QVP Haruka. I do love my Rocketeer, but found I had to fiddle with the tension too much any time I changed thread, setup etc. I have been playing with the TL-18 all week and am SO happy with it :-) The tension and stitching are flawless and I honestly love that it's mechanical. Love, love, LOVE the floating foot adjustment for FMQ :-) I will still use my Rocketeer for piecing and zigzag :-) She is not going anywhere :-)

Congrats! There's a great FB page for Juki fans (Juki Junkies) with lots of good info on the machines as well as some fun projects. If you ever want to get into bag making or some of the home dec sewing like welted pillows, the semi-industrial nature of the TL series (and the floating foot of the TL-18QVP) are perfect for those bulky projects as well.