Beautiful post. Sometimes though, you can "have your cake and eat it, too." That is, you may be able to quilt on a sitdown at a dealer without having to buy one. By the way, you might also look at HQ Sweet Sixteen which I personally think is a better machine with fewer problems and made in USA. I fell in love in one at a quilt show a few years ago and test drove them whenever I got to a show. Then I discovered that a local machine quilter sells them and she would let me use hers. Often you can pay a reasonable fee to use one to do your quilt. I did eventually buy a demo machine from her, and now I'm open to having people use mine to do their own quilting. So look around, and see what is available near you. There are good used machines much more reasonably priced, too. Tiara and Sweet 16 are basically the same machine, and it's just such fun to use them.