Noiseynana

Thats my problem. I didn't test drive and bought the Janome MC9900. Bigest mistake i ever made. Way too much machine for me.

wendiq

I have the PQ1500 and would only consider lap quilts.....any more would be a struggle......I also have a Janome 6600 but still only do lap quilts....It has an 9" throat. I suppose you could do and many do FMQ with it, but that's too hard for me to tackle.

NUBQ

I wouldn't get rid of my old Juki TL98E either..All it ever needs is oil (they say to oil often) and a good dusting that one can get to from an underneath door, even...Speed scared the heck out of me the first time I stepped on the pedal. It's worth it for the buyer to take a chance on an old one on Ebay..That's where mine came from.. Excellent machine...

Prism99

For anyone doing sitdown quilting, I think it is a good idea to invest in a "suspender" system for the quilt. This relieves drag and allows you to move the quilt more freely for both straight-line quilting and FMQ. Here is a link to a suspender system: http://www.jennoop.com/suspenders.html . There are videos on Youtube that show what quilting is like using one of these systems. Some quilters have built their own out of PVC. I believe Leah Day uses a similar setup for her sitdown quilting.

Also, I want to second the advice to accordion-fold your quilt under the arm. To do this, you simply create informal folds in the quilt under the arm. When these folds are as high as your arm allows, you are close to pushing the maximum quilt under the arm. These loose folds (no need for clips) are *much* more manageable than a roll. Rolls are much stiffer and become harder to manipulate than loose accordion folds.

profannie

Ah, ah, I too was scared by the speed! Now I just love it for strip piecing

rryder

I agree about squishing or accordian folding rather than rolling. I find it much easier to fmq when my quilt is squished rather than rolled. In fact, I'm pretty sure the quilt I'm working on now would completely fill the throat space and be unmoveable if it were rolled.

Someone mentioned dealers not being willing to service machines not bought from them. I've been lucky with the local Brother dealer, even though my PC420PRW was bought from Amazon, they were very good about honoring the warranty when it needed repair and they've given me the same deal on tune-ups that they give folks who've bought from them.

The only dealers within an hour of me are Brother, Bernina and Viking/Husqvarna. Bernina's are way out of my price range and the Viking/Husqvarna's aren't serviced locally since they're sold through Joanne fabric stores. So if I do end up buying a new machine with a 10 or 11 inch throat it will most likely be a Brother.

On the other hand, if I could convince myself that the 81/2 to 9" throat depth of the Brother PQ1500s was enough bigger than my current machines to really make a difference when I'm quilting larger quilts, then I'd go ahead and purchase one of those since they are within my current budget. I'd be willing to take a chance on a used one if the price was right and have been searching ebay and craig's list, but so far the used ones I've seen on Ebay are getting bid up to almost new prices.

Since both of my current Brother machines have done a nice job FMQ over the years the only reason I'm contemplating a new machine is because I've recently been quilting larger quilts than either of those machines can comfortably accommodate-- Of course, I wouldn't have this dilemma if I would just make smaller quilts LOL.

Peckish

You might search, there have been many threads discussing the pros and cons of these machines. Another place to get input is Yahoo - I know there is a group for the Brother 1500, and there are probably groups for the other machines as well.