I'm a novice quilter, but my wife is very experienced. We have had some cranky machines, and we decided to get a new one, based on trying a similar Singer model recently at a quilt retreat. Someone said you gotta have an automatic threader and automatic thread cutting. Now that we have the 9960 I agree, best features ever. When you unplug the foot pedal, you can use the start button to begin sewing, and the thread cutter to stop! Very cool. I use the machine that way. It's a great machine.