What sewing machine do you use?

As many of you know, I sadly said goodbye to my mom’s 20 year old Elna sewing machine about a month ago after it was badly serviced by Elna. My new machine is good but it is taking some time to trust and love and events have not helped: my first machine stopped working every time I got home so two days later it was exchanged for another new machine. Last week (exactly a month later) this sewing machine (the second one) went phoOF-bAng-grRRrr and stopped. The belt had come off becuase the screws had not been tightened properly when the machine was assembled. They also discovered several other ‘niggly’ faults which got ‘fixed’. Now I think it sounds funny but I also think that might be in my head.

I have discovered the hard way that the brands you trusted becuase of years of sewing happily with them are not always the best anymore. This brings me to my mission: To find out what the BEST NEW sewing machine is to buy. I know the old machines are still BEST (kind of like the classic VW Beatle) but if you have to trade-up or need a new one, what is the BEST make to buy?

I asked the Etsy forums and got some great feedback. Click here to read the discussion and to add your comment/recomend a brand/share your sewing story.