Brother CS6000i vs Janome Jem Gold with quilting package

Hi everyone!

I'm looking to buy a first sewing machine. I grew up sewing on an old singer and have tried out newer machines.
My main interests are piecing, quilting, home decor and perhaps clothing...but my budget is around $250 and my space is very small, so I was looking at the smaller machines.

I've heard good things about the Janome Jem Gold. The price is nice on the Brother, but almost too nice? Any suggestions or insight would be helpful!

Thank you.

In my opinion, the Janome will be a better purchase than a Brother. Although, that's just from my experience.

If you can, I highly suggest you sit down and "test drive" each one. I had my heart set on a machine years ago, but when I went to purchase it, I bought a totally different machine because of how it performed when I tried it.

Definitely go with a Janome over a Brother!  The first machine I ever bought was a Brother and it was poorly designed and made learning to sew frustrating instead of fun.  My mom bought me an inexpensive Janome and I was amazed at the difference.  I will never buy any machine other than Janome, now.  I haven't used the Jem, yet, but there is an awesome Janome that is in your price range, The Sewist 500; here's my review:
http://sew-and-grow.blogspot.com/p/janome-sewing-machines.html

I have the step down from the CS6000i, the XL2600i. I figured I didn't want to spend a ton on a machine when I wasn't sure how much I'd get into sewing. Consumer Reports liked it and that was recommendation enough for me.

One of the local sewing teachers is writing a series for his blog about buying a sewing machine. According to his blog, the only under $200 machines he likes are the Brother models. He's not a fan of the lower market models from the fancier manufacturers.

That said, it's probably best to test drive before making a decision.. I didn't with mine because I figured I don't know enough to knot the difference either way.

I have the cs6000i and it is a great little machine. The only 2 drawbacks to the cs6000i is that it only has a 5 inch quilting space...not much room for a large quilt and I think my seams should be straighter- they seem to wobble a little. Hope this helps. 

I use mainly industrial machines for my business, but need to have a home machine too for various reasons. I've used a lot of different Brothers over the years and find they work great.

I recently needed to replace my home machine and found this site that had some good info on a few home Brother sewing machines, including the cs6000i -

http://www.brotherssewingmachinereviews.com

My favorite trick for using a home machine in my biz is -  instead of buying a $1500 (and up!) tacking machine for pinch pleated drapes, I use the buttonhole setting on my home machine, (for less than a third the price lol), set it at the small stitch that tacks the buttonhole across the top or bottom, make the pleat, slide it under the foot, let the machine stitch back and forth a few times, and voila..perfect tacks every time..

Suzanne

http://www.sjonescustomdrapes.com