Originally Posted by AZTeri

I've been scarce around here because I've been working on mug rugs. Well, yesterday my sewing machine decided it was going to die on me. Something in the bobbin is hitting the needle and hanging is up. I took it to the shop this morning, and they are going to fix it under warranty, because I just had it serviced a few months ago. Unfortunately, they also told me that parts are becoming very scarce for my machine (1976 Singer Futura II 920). It's been a reliable workhorse, and I'm sad to see this happen. She did recommend that I start looking for a new machine and keep this one on hand as a backup, since she doesn't know how much longer any parts will be available.

So, while I'm out of commission until the 20th - with a stack of 18 mug rugs and 10 stockings that I wanted to get done by Christmas - I have been given permission to research a new machine! I'm going to go to a Quilt festival in Phoenix in January where I hope to test drive several different machines to figure out which one I would like to look for, but tell me - what is your preferred machine, and why? I'm not looking for heavy embroidery work, but I do want a big enough throat to handle at the least queen sized quilts, a variety of quilting stitches, fmq abilities (probably all of them?) and low maintenance. Thanks!