feline fanatic

I can not stress enough what others have written.... Know the features you want!! If you won't do embroidery don't buy a machine that does that. Over 20 years ago I bought my Bernina 150QE and it was head over heels love from day one. Not only the machine, but I bought the whole package which included the special table the machine sets down into. At the time Bernina was offering interest free financing for a year so I made sure to pay that baby off in the one year time. My dealer is fantabulous! Part of the deal was 5 years, yes I said FIVE years of service maintenance free! Also included free training to learn all the bells and whistles. I feel a great dealer is just as important as the machine and you would be amazed at how much you can do with the correct work station as well. I would sacrifice features so I could get the correct work station (table) for the machine. I love my Bernina.

annesthreads

I had similar fears. I'd struggled for 7 years with a Janome that was a bit of a lemon - great for piecing but rubbish for quilting - and eventually decided I'd have to replace it or find a new hobby. It became obvious that I was going to have to make a major purchase - very scary when you're on a pension. I started off by saying "anything but a Janome", but several months of reading reviews and forums and trying out other machines brought me to the conclusion that it might be the best choice. I assumed I'd go for a 6600 - the 7700 just looked so big and scary, and was beyond my budget. But continued reading seemed to suggest that it was currently the best machine out there for quilting and the large harp space certainly appealed. A good offer on the price in January of this year clinched it. I had several sleepless nights - it seemed such a lot of money to spend, even with the offer, and I was so scared that I'd not be able to cope with it or would still have problems with quilting (both Janome and my old dealer insisted they were my fault, not the machine's). But when I went and tried it out, I was thrilled: being used to a Janome, it seemed very familiar, in spite of being so much more sophisticated, and guess what - suddenly I could quilt! 2 months later I'm still very, very happy. Even if I never used any of its other features (which I will with time), it would be worth every penny for me, because I can just sit down and quilt, and not spend all my time and energy fighting the machine.
So I would say above all take your time, join forums for the machines you're interested in and ask questions, ask everyone you know what they think of their machines, try different ones, make sure you find a helpful dealer who will let you spend a lot of time on the machines you're considering. Maybe consider the cheaper alternatives - I looked at vintage machines and cheaper models to see if they would do what I was looking for and only moved back to looking at the high-end machines when I was pretty sure they wouldn't. Hopefully you'll gradually find it becomes clearer what you need and what you'd be comfortable with.

SuzyQ2

sad to say my answer is yes....not once but twice!!!! Do your homework before you buy and TEST the machine before buying. Good luck

gramquilter2

I bought the high end Bernina embroidery machine and LOVE it. I use it everyday and am always in the process of making something fantastic. Since then I have also bought a Bernina quilting edition 440 which I really like. I have never been sorry for either purchase. Buy what you really want and can afford.

BellaBoo

If you can afford it don't fret over if. Buy from a reputable dealer, not the dealer with the best deal.

tutt

I bought a Bernina 820 about a year ago and did have remorse at spending so much when I had a perfectly good Pfaff, but after sewing on it for a few days, didn't give it another thought. Love it!

carolynjo

I like my Viking (10 years old) but I LOVE my Singer 401A (55 years old). It does, albeit manually, most of what the high end machines do today. We paid a fortune for it in 1957 (1 salary, newlywed, etc.,) but I wouldn't trade it for anything on the market.

vickimc

It is according to what you want to do. If just for quilting, you can find a model for quilting that doesnt cost so much. but if you want the combo sewing and embroidery you will pay big bucks. I have done both. I learned that I wish I had bought a seperate stand alone embroidery machine. I dont like taking the embroidery unit on and off, so I bought a sewing machine for piecing and use the other for embroidery mostly. I find I am not embroidering much in the last few years. so, decide what you really want and go for it.

bobquilt3

IMHO, I think it depends on the person. Many times you buy the expensive machine, are thrilled to death, bring it home and the then say to it, "Do something wonderful." and it just sits there and does the same old things your old one did. . . and you wonder why you spent so much money.
If you are willing to explore, make mistakes and maybe swear at it a little, you can learn the wonderful things this new machine will do. You can take lessons. . . why reinvent the wheel. Sure you can eventually figure it out but a lesson will show you how to do what you wanted and a whole lot more that you never thought of.
Do you have the patience to do all this? It will make a lot of techniques easier and more professional looking but do you want or need new techniques? Lets face it I like my toys. I like puzzles. I like learning. So, yes the high end machine makes sense to me. Figuring it out is half the fun. I went for it and love my Bernina 820 (I'm not into embroidery) but I'm not you.
Hope this helps but I'm afraid that in the end it is all up to you. What you like, want and need.
Good luck with your decision. Let us know how it worked out.

Suze9395

A few yeras ago I wanted one of the higher end machines, but it wasn't in the budget. I checked around and found a used Viking quilt designer with lots of extras for $700. I love it. Dealers will often have used machines for sale that customers have traded in.