You can spend truly large sums of money buying fancy machines like Bernina, but most people don’t need all the functions of those machines (which really are incredible, but that’s another post). Most people who want to do some quilting or sewing for fun or as a hobby, or even as a small home-based business, are fine with a cheaper machine that still has some of the nicer functions. My favorite of the cheap machines is a discontinued model from Brother. I purchased it on Amazon as a “renewed” product, which means it was returned, but it was obvious that this had never been used. The plastic and tape was still all over it. So I saved about 60 bucks by purchasing the renewed version.

The machine has some nice features, such as MANY built-in stitches. The arm and bed make a nice circle in case you want to quilt on a smallish quilt–you just have to roll it up as you go. It has a single-button needle up/down control, so if you want the needle to stop in the down position, you can just push the button and it will switch from up to down, and vice-versa. You can also program the machine to stop in your preferred position, up or down. It has an automatic needle threader (that of course takes a little bit of practice/getting used to). It has 130 stitches, including some “fancy” stitches, plus 55 letters, number, and other embroidery stitches. It has a free arm in case you actually need to sew shirt sleeves or something like that (I never do). It has over 10 different sewing feet with snap-on attachment. And, best of all, it comes with an extended table to give you a better sewing surface. I’m not an experienced sewer or quilter, but this machine does everything I could want in a basic machine, and more.