Cheryls Fabric Garden

I would recommend a Bernina because they all have metal parts and no plastic parts. However, their lowest price will probably not fit in your budget. Whatever machine you buy, may sure they offer you classes. (They should be free.)
It is a lot better than trying to figure out things by yourself. Many times the instructors will also have tips that they have learned along the way. Sometimes price is not always the best bargain when you are not happy with a machine.

frannella

In defense of big box stores, I bought an electronic Brother at Costco for < $150 and it came with a ton of specialty feet, including all the ones needed for quilting. Beyond price, the advantage of buying from a big box store like Costco (or even HSN) is that they typically bundle a lot of assessories you might otherwise have to buy separately. It's so low mainenance you can't oil it even if you wanted to try. Sews very smoothly, great stitch selection, easy electronics, and it weighs about 3 pounds so that it's very portable (my cat weighs more). Oherwise, ditto what others here have said--go to a dealer and ask them to keep you and your specifications in mind (used machines offer the best value), and abandon the idea of a large harp--it is cancelled out by budget constraints.

Dolphyngyrl

You are not really going to get a large harp for 200, but you can get a nice low end brother with nice decorative stitches. I like my SQ-9050 a lot from Walmart. It runs 200 but it doesn't have a big harp but has nice features for quilting. There are some nice straight stitch machines with decent harp size for about500

Feathers-N-Fur

I hated everything about sewing, untill I spent $130 on my Brother ES2000 4 years ago at Costco. It has 77 stitches, needle threader, and is no maintenance, easy to use, and soooo much easier to use than my 15 year old Kenmore. That was when I found out I love quilting. I still have and use it, with no problems, but I picked up a 9" straight stitch that I use most of the time now, and just use the other one for decorative stitches. But my little ES2000 is only a 5.5" harp.

bearisgray

I HAD to have a machine with fancy stitches - and I use about ten of them - at the most!

Teacup

Brother is the way to go if that's your budget and you already have a vintage machine. But you won't get the large harp in that price range. If you have a larger harp on your older machines, where you could do your quilting, do you need it on this one? Do a search on this board and online for Brother CS6000i and read the ratings. I've been surprised by how well mine does for piecing and overall basic sewing. Check out ratings on the Brother SQ9050 as well.