Originally Posted by
lizzie3
All of these suggestions are so great I really appreciate the time people are taking to respond. I will look into the WALK book and look at knee lift feature, I've read elsewhere that it;s a great feature.
Both my Bernina 590 and my Viking Topaz 40 have the "hover"feature which means that when you set the machine to stop in the needle down position, the foot will automatically raise slightly enough for you to turn your work without having to manually lift the pressure foot or even use the knee lifter (on the bernina only). I love it for applique. The Viking Topaz 40 would be in your budget with enough left over to also get a longer necked straight stitch machine for free motion quilting. The Bernina 590 would be at the max of your budget most likely if you can find a sale. Both these machines have an 8.5 inch neck