If your quilting guild is like mine, no sewing goes on at guild meetings. However, we do meet once a month at a fabric store to sew. I usually take my Janome Jem Platinum to sew-ins.

I also have a Janome Platinum Jem. Since I already had a larger Janome, it made sense because they both use the same feet. AND it fits into an airline carry on bag. In fact it will be flying with me next month. It would be a good idea to check if the feet your current machine uses will be compatible with your smaller machine.

I have discovered a new brand 'Ever Sewen'. Gosh, I just love it. I think it weight 17 lbs and is white and a beautiful raspberry color. The machine is all metal so it doesn't shake when I use it. It has slow/fast, needle down, needle threader and lots of beautiful stitches. So easy to use and it's quiet. After I got mine, I think about 7 other guild members got one too. We all are in love with this machine.

My brother from walmart is my go to small machine. It has been a workhorse and a dream. I love it. It is the SQ-9050. It was replaced by the SQ-9185 which is also popular

I have the same - works great.

I have a Babylock Sofia. Has lots of nice features and also does embroidery. I paid $700 for it but have seen it on sale for $500.

I found that it is much easier if both the machines use the same bobbin and feet. That being said, I have a Brother Innovis 4000D and a Brother CSI6000. I had a small Janome, but had to read the manual every time I used it and it used a different bobbin. It did sew better than the Brother CSI6000, but I lost time every time I used it.

FYI......most quilt guild meetings are not sewing meetings. Usually they are for business, show & tell, education, challenges and charity. I would go to the first meeting with an open mind and see if you even like what is going on. Bees or sew days is where you typically use a sewing machine. A large group that I belong to has sewing bees for different types of projects. You can learn a lot there, but mostly everyone wants to work on their own stuff. Even though I love to sew with others, I find that packing up, traveling and unpacking and then the reverse takes 2 or 3 hours out of my sew day and defeats my purpose of getting something done. A good thing is that you might meet others that want to meet and sew with only a single other person. This is where you can leave your sewing machine there, have access to rulers and cutters so you don't have to bring yours and just sew, visit and have fun. That's the sew days I like.

If you aren't one to miss needle up/down, speed control, variable needle positions, auto cutters, etc.. the Jem Gold or a featherweight (or other mechanical) are perfect due to compact size, beautiful stitch, ease of use, low maintenance and cuteness. If you do like those computerized features, you may not be happy using a mechanical machine for long. I go to a large quilting group sew-day and quite a few do use trolleys to bring in TOL $$ combo machines, a few others use mechanical vintage or newer..always there are a few Jems but most popular w/ this group are the janomes at the <$500 range, and most all of those are computerized and full-sized. Also the vast majority of these are not recent purchases at all. Well, its a large "sampling" of different quilters each time and I always pay attention to what machines are there! All of this to say..many janomes of all types are in use at each event, year after year in my area even though there are dealers of all brands nearby.

The Sofia is what I have also, and that is why I bought it - to take to a monthly sewing group get-together. LOVE IT!

I have three older portable machines that are easy to tote. Featherweight - has no features but being super lightweight and cute. Brother 420 (before it became PRW) - all the features you will ever need. Janome Gem Gold - older model and it's a perfect basic machine.
I sometimes take my Bernina 1260 but it is heavy even though it is not that big in size. My favorite? I guess it would be the Brother.