I have owned 4 Elna sewing and 2 sergers..I still have 2 machines and a serger. All were originals made by Elna in Sweden except my recent purchase of the 7100 made by Janome. They were all great--very long lasting and dependable. I still have my Elna Carina with air pedal in my closet, but the 7100 is a different animal...has a bigger throat for quilting and only does strait stitching. However, I have been very pleased with it's performance. I would suggest you look at the Pfaff,,I have 2 of these and they are very good machines. They have built in IDT so you never need to buy a walking foot--and you can choose the features you want. Brother makes very friendly machines also--I have 2 of their embroidery models and I love, love love them!

Elnas were never made in Sweden. They were Swiss. But you cannot compare the old European ones with the new Janome made ones - its apples and oranges.

I agree, cooksnsews...it popped into my head just today that I should have said Tavaro,(?) Switzerland. My bad! Everyone has her own opinion about what the best machine is, and it is good we can share our opinions. Because if we all liked one brand best, there would be no options to choose from.

Thank you for the feedback. I very much appreciate it.

The Elna I've been looking at I think will suit my needs for now; it comes with a plexi glass table , walking foot, 1/4" foot and free motion foot included in the $599 price. I thought that sounded good as I've been checking around for awhile.

She also includes lessons in the price as I am going to need them to maximize all the features it offers.

Thanks again, please feel free to add any other comments as it'll be next week before I can get in there to buy it.

clady