Brand new to sewing and looking to buy a machine... Help!!?

Would you believe you can do both quilting and embroidery on one of these? http://www.dincum.com/library/libraryimages/lib_ru... All you need for either is straight stitch and some skill. However, I'm going to presume you want something like this for embroidery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFzQwQB3HWc

Personally, I'd encourage you NOT to buy before Christmas. You haven't had time to really shop around and see the capabilities of various machines. However, if the only sewing machine dealer near you only handles Viking AND they have a good solid series of classes, then a Viking embroidery machine may be a good choice for you. Please read the machine reviews over at http://www.patternreview.com/ of any machine you're considering. I do not do computerized machine embroidery; I do do a little free motion embroidery (the sort that can be done on any sewing machine) but mostly I'm a hand embroiderer. I have friends who do machine embroidery -- some of them swear by their particular brand and model, some swear at them. Virtually all of them have at least one more machine they use for sewing -- you've got to babysit the machine while it's stitching out a design, so you might as well sew -- so you need a second machine.

If you were my neighbor, and on a budget, we'd be hunting for an old Singer straight stitcher, pre-zigzag, especially a Singer 201 or one of the 15 models, especially a 15-91. These machines are sturdy and you can maintain them yourself. But they only do straight stitch. But straight stitch allows to you piece quilt tops and quilt the entire quilt. Stepping up from there, I'd be looking for a new machine with stepper or servo motors (which allow full needle punching force even at slow speeds). a large space in the "harp" (the open area to the right of the needle -- you'll be dragging half a quilt through that space while you're quilting), a knee lift for the presser foot, and a thread cutter, preferably on the foot pedal. Something like the Juki TL series machines would be my first choice for this purpose, or an industrial needle feed machine.

I mostly sew clothes -- did so for 35 years on a Singer 301 straight stitch machine, then switched to a Viking 350 machine with 30 stitches and a couple of buttonholes -- much easier -- after a disastrous encounter with a cheapie White machine that broke in less than a year. I now use a Juki F-600, But I've made a fair number of quilts over the years on the Singer and VIking both. I prefer to teach beginners on the Viking because there's less for them to remember at first, but the old Singers really weren't all that difficult.

I guess the best advice I can give you right now is to slow down and look for a dealer who will really support your learning. It's the best way I know of to keep you from utter frustration, because both machine embroidery and quilting have some steep uphill sections, especially at first, and a good teacher can really help.

I'd also love you to take a look at this video and think about it -- she speaks wisely of sewing machine ergonomics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbmQ2riM7Yo

the best I can tell you is buy all the machine you can afford, get a good one and it will last you a very long time, with proper maintenance. learn which thread and material and needle are compatible. Read the owners manual and keep it safe for future reference. Practice makes perfect and there are millions of videos online to teach you everything you'd ever want to know about sewing! enjoy!!