Originally Posted by mltquilt
There are many very good machines on the market. I have always had Berninas and love them. My last Bernina purchase was the new 830. Try out as many as you can from different dealers. Check out the dealer too because their reputation is just as important as that of the brand of machine. They need to have good employees that are friendly and know the machines. They also need to have a good service technician. Would love to see you get a Bernina, but whatever machine you end up with you will have fun with embroidery.
mltquilt
I also have the new Bernina 830. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I agree that a good dealer/service technician is very important when deciding which machine to purchase. My first embroidery machine was the Pfaff 7570, then I got the Pfaff 2170. I had intended to get the Pfaff Creative Vision and my dealer (who sells both Pfaff and Berninas) talked me into getting the Bernina because of the way it is built. Make sure you test drive whichever machine that you buy, though. And find out what the working parts are made of. Good luck and let us know what your decision is.
I find that Embroidery Library has some of the nicest and least expensive embroidery designs & they have sales quite regularly. I have never had a design stitch out poorly from them. (I can't say that about some of the other places that I purchased designs from.)