Quote Originally Posted by andralynaa View Post
Any general advice for features (especially for FMQ) on a small budget? Any general advice on the best brands to look at?
• Get the biggest throat you can. The throat is the distance between the body of the machine and the needle. As you quilt, you'll have a lot of fabric to shove over there and a bigger throat makes things a lot easier!

•As far as brands, there will always be people who will say "this brand is garbage" or "that brand is the best" but in reality all the manufacturers have had good products and lemons. I have a cheap brother machine which has been ridden hard and put away wet and continues to sew pretty well. I have a Husqvarna Viking machine that literally cost more than a car I once owned and while it is quite nice, everything for it is more expensive (for example feet for my Brother machine are $8-$12, feet for my HV are $30+ each)

• They love to advertise the # of stitches each machine is capable of but how many stitches do you really use? If a machine with 250 stitches is X amount and a machine with 500 is twice that amount, are you really going to use those other 250 stitches enough to justify doubling the price of the machine? I'm not even sure how many stitches my nicer machine does but I can tell you I use about a dozen of them and ignore the rest.

• Are you doing things other than quilting? If you make (or hope to make) other things like garmets and craft project you might pay attention to things like how easy is the button hole function? My little machine has the most difficult and frustrating button holer in the world whereas my nicer machine as amazing buttonhole functionality.

• Budget for accessories. I like a walking foot for straight line quilting and these range from $20 to well over $100 depending on your machine. Also there are different piecing feet to try, SITD feet, extra bobbins, etc. Make sure you don't get so blinded by the machine price that you forget what it will take to purchase a full setup you'll be happy with.

• You can't buy your way into sewing skill. A skilled quilter can make beautiful quilts on an inexpensive machine and someone who lacks skills won't be any better just because they sit behind an $8,000 machine. Be reasonable about what level you are sewing at and don't try to buy your way into sewing skill because that can only be earned through hours of sittign behind whatever machine you have.

• Needle down. My little machine does not have it, my bigger machine does. I use it all the time and I love it. Almost any computerized machine should offer a needle down setting.