Originally Posted by Hockeyrabbit

Hi Everyone-

I am in the market for a new machine, and would like to check out all the local dealers. I have a Bernina Virtuosa for piecing and it does a great job, but to be honest, I am looking for more bells and whistles. Like a thread cutter might be nice! HA! This is really the only machine I have, in addition to my long arm and Babylock quilters pro choice which I got for FMQ and then moved on to the longarm.

I don't like the Bernina dealers..they are very different breed. There is a local dealer who is about 20 minutes from my house that sells Brother machines..what do you think of them?? I could afford $2-3k if they had a payment plan, which she often does.

I am looking for a machine that is versatile..I can embroider and sew on it, plus comes with a lot of advanced features. When comparing Brothers to Bernina, it seems that Brothers have more "bang for the buck" but I don't want to sacrifice quality.

Anyways, do you think I should go and test some out? I have break next week and really want to do some research before ramming around. I could also look at Janomes.

Thanks, JC