mic-pa

I love my Janome's. They have most all of the features mentioned above, and there is so many styles and price ranges I would go to my local dealer who will be the most important person to you when picking a machine. Try them all out. There are a lot of good ones out there and Good Luck Marge

Dora Taggart

I love my Janome 6600 P and it has a 9 1/2 throat plate

MadQuilter

Hi Bernadette,

I'm not sure I understand your question exactly. For regular sewing, the feed dogs move the fabric. A walking foot helps keep the top layer and bottom layer of fabric together and moves it under the needle at the same time. THis is important to match seams and match patterns. Without the walking foot, the sewing foot pulls the top fabric at a different speed than the teeth of the feed dogs. The shift can be quite noticeable.

When you quilt in Free Motion Mode, the feed dogs must be dropped, so the quilt can move freely.

I have a Pfaff with a built-in walking foot. I have the option to engage or disengage this feature. Here is a picture:

http://www.pfaffusa.com/195.html

Did I answer?

blahel

exactly what you said Rachel! except I want the Bernina 820!

blahel

this machine might have to be my second choice after the Bernina 820...

bernadette byrd

YES! THANK YOU-you answered it very clearly and with lots of detail-I finally know what I have been asking for a week - what machine do you recommed for beginers?

Oklahoma Suzie

Yes great ideas.

peabee

community benefactor, tell me more about the table you're using for your 6600. is it custom made? there was another thread today on using auto threaders, what do you think about the 6600 threader?

b.zang

I have exactly the same machine and also love your table, Dora. I have a Janome table, but have to re-arrange for quilting because it's too small.

Peabee, the needle threader works well. Sometimes I use it, sometimes not. I usually don't have trouble finding the eye so it's quicker to just poke my thread through.

Features I use the most are:
- needle up/down
- needle position
- machine speed

Features I love that are like super-bonus:
- the wide top feed dogs that are removable
- thread cutting at the needle

SuzzyQ

These definatly are the MUST Haves - and try before you buy. Take your own fabric to the shops as well. Any machine would sew well with the material they demo with.
I wouldn't worry about the quilting aspect - I've quilted up to a queen size on my regular machine (Janome also Pfaff and Singer) fairly easily.Both of these were quilted on my machine.