I recently bought a Babylock Anna. I love her! She weighs 15 pounds and is a great little machine for piecing. She is very easy to carry around to classes. I almost bought the Janome Gem Gold, which I have heard nothing but good things about. The Anna just had a few more features that I wanted. She was under $250 on sale with an old clunker as a trade-in.

Check the web, but the best thing you can do is find a good dealer that sells a variety of machines and try out as many as you like. There are lots of nice little machines out there.

I also suggest you buy a carrying case when you buy a machine if you want to bring it to classes.