thats what I was thinking of for my first one just something really cheap so that i can learn the basics, but all those other ones are so PRETTY and sound so NICE it just makes you want one. I m sure i will only be using one stitch for a long time :lol: Then again I don't want to regret not getting something that had a little more.

I learned to sew on my Mom's Singer Touch N Sew.
When I got married and started making clothes for my girls, my mom and dad bought me a cheap $80 Singer. I used that for about 20 years and ended up giving it away. It needed a HUGE cleaning and that was going to cost me about $100, so didn't feel I needed to pay that. I did have a Kenmore standby that I used. That one is probably about 15 years old and works great too!
My main machine is a Kenmore Ergo3. It retailed at the time for almost $2000 and I got it for about 1/2 that. What I liked was that it had the embroidery machine built in as well, so I "bit the bullet" and bought it. I just love it! I've had it for about 4 years now and it's going great!

what a deal though! my husband wants to buy me a machine and keeps aking which one i want but I don't know thats why I started asking here. He seea all those fancy ones that do all the awesome embroidery, which I also like. but it seemed that you could buy so many different embroidery software that I was intimidated by this. Do you have to buy different cartridges or software for your machine? just wondering if that is an added cost.

My good 'hand' quilting friend did the same as you:)She went around and tried everyone's machines and bought a Janome like mine;)She just finished a flannel quilt on it!:)You won't be sorry!:)You can go to the site direct of machines, such as janome and select what features you are interested in and the list of machines will pop up:)(helps with learning different options)I started out w/the janome 3200 and have since upgraded to the 6600 for more speed and a bigger throat area to make machine quilting on it easier. Was doing all of it on the 3200...which worked fine...just tight on those bigger quilts:)Good luck and enjoy the search!Skeat

thanx skeat i need all the help i can get :-)

I'd back up what Terri said by saying start with a basic cheap one - we all quilt differently and the features indispensible to some of us a re useless to others - you need to discover what kind of machine quilter you are first! Just my 2 cents!

Exactly! You can pick up an inexpensive Singer at Walmart or even a Brother at Kmart. Won't cost you over $100 until you get the hang of it.

Darn tootin, Loretta!
I'd love to have a $5000 machine, but will it do something different than the one I have? Probably not. Might have a bigger throat for FMQ, but if I'm going to spend that much on a machine, it better cook dinner for me and draw me a nice bubble bath too! :)

LOL Loretta, mine too!
There were no free lessons for mine since I bought it at Sears. But, I did find a Yahoo Group that helped me tremdously.

I've read all the posts, and I think the most important thing to do is to test drive a machine....Go to all the sewing machine dealers in your area, and check out the machine that they recommend to you, and a few others...just explain to the sales person that you are just trying to find a good fit for you... they will understand.....PLEASE, make sure that you get a machine with a strong enough motor, quilting takes it's toll. Many of the cheapy machines can't handle 1/2 hour of stippling without shutting down...
P.S. I have worked for a dealer for many years, and have helped many newbies find the right machine for their needs. Good Luck, Susie