The short answer
The Brother PQ1600S - the only Brother machine that publishes both a large throat and 1,500 stitches per minute.
Brother publishes 8.7 in of needle-to-arm width by 5.7 in of height, an 11.1 x 23.3 in extension table, a knee lifter and 1,500 stitches per minute. It sews one stitch and nothing else, which is the trade.
If you want one Brother machine for quilting and you are not also embroidering, this is it, and the rest of this page is about why the cheaper machines with quilting in their name are a different product.
Brother sells two different things under one word
Search for a Brother quilting machine and you will be shown machines between roughly $165 and $3,000. They are not the same category of object, and the specification sheets say so plainly if you look for one figure.
The PQ line - the PQ1600S and PQ1500SL - are single-stitch machines built around a large opening and a high feed rate. Brother publishes a needle-to-arm measurement for both.
The CS, CP, XR and HC machines - the CS7000X, CP100X, XR3774, XR9550 and HC1850 - are general-purpose domestic machines that ship with a wide table and, on most of them, quilting feet. Brother publishes no needle-to-arm, work space or throat figure for any of the five.
That is not a nitpick. The opening is the specification that decides whether a rolled quilt goes through the machine at all, which is worked out in full on how much throat space you need. A machine that does not publish it is a machine Brother is not selling to you on that basis.
How we ranked this
1. Is the opening published, and how big is it?
Two of the six publish it: 8.7 x 5.7 in on the PQ1600S and a Brother-published 5.7″ x 8.6″ on the PQ1500SL - note the height-first order, which is the reverse of how Brother writes its embroidery figures. The NQ3550W publishes 8.3 x 4.1 in. The other three publish nothing.
2. Feed rate
Brother publishes 1,500 spm for both PQ machines and 750 to 850 spm for the cheaper five - 750 on the CS7000X and CP100X, 800 on the XR3774, 850 on the HC1850, and nothing at all on the XR9550. The PQ machines run at roughly double the rate of the machines merely marketed for quilting.
3. Knee lifter
A published yes/no, and the most quilting-specific feature on any of these spec sheets. It lifts the presser foot with your leg, so both hands stay on the quilt while you pivot. Brother publishes Yes for both PQ machines, No for the CS7000X, CP100X and XR3774, and carries no knee lifter row at all for the XR9550 or the HC1850.
4. What you give up to get the opening
Stitch count. The PQ machines publish one built-in stitch. The CS7000X publishes 70, the CP100X 100, the XR3774 37. If this is your only machine, that matters more than the throat does.
The whole Brother range, on published figures
Manufacturer-published figures only, read from each Brother product page on 2026-09-26 and 2026-09-27| Machine | Published needle-to-arm space | Built-in stitches | Max sewing speed | Knee lifter | Published weight |
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| Brother PQ1600S | 8.7 in x 5.7 in | 1 | 1,500 spm | Yes | 23.81 lb |
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| Brother PQ1500SL | 8.6 in x 5.7 in (published height-first) | 1 | 1,500 spm | Yes | 24.2 lb |
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| Brother NQ3550W | 8.3 in x 4.1 in | 291 + embroidery | Not published | Not published | Not published |
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| Brother CS7000X | Not published | 70 | 750 spm | No | 10.5 lb |
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| Brother CP100X | Not published | 100 | 750 spm | No | 10.5 lb |
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| Brother XR3774 | Not published | 37 | 800 spm | No | 12.3 lb |
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| Brother XR9550 | Not published | 165 (55 alphanumeric) | Not published | No row published | 10.14 lb |
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| Brother HC1850 | Not published | 185 (55 alphanumeric) | 850 spm | No row published | 13.2 lb |
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One more thing that table shows: the CS7000X and the CP100X publish identical unit dimensions (12.2 x 6.65 x 16.26 in), an identical 10.5 lb weight and an identical 750 spm. They are the same chassis with different stitch counts, and nothing on either page pretends otherwise.
What double the feed rate is actually worth
Brother publishes 1,500 spm for the PQ1600S and 750 spm for the CS7000X. At a 2.5 mm stitch length that is 148 in of seam per minute against 74 in per minute.
Take a queen top at 90 x 108 in, quilted in straight lines 4 in apart across the 90 in width. That is about 23 passes of 108 in, or roughly 2,480 in of stitching.
PQ1600S: about 17 minutes of actual sewing.
CS7000X: about 34 minutes.
Assumptions stated: a 2.5 mm stitch length and 4 in line spacing, both chosen by us, not published by Brother. Change either and both numbers move together - the 2:1 ratio does not, because it comes straight from the two published speeds.
Why each machine placed where it did
1. Brother PQ1600S - the one to buy
8.7 in of published width is more than either Juki TL machine offers, the extension table size is actually published at 11.1 x 23.3 in, and it adds a pin feed mechanism that swaps the feed dogs for a single pin. Its full write-up is on the PQ1600S review.
The honest drawback: 5.7 in of height, which is less than the Juki TL-2010Q’s 6 in, and height is what a rolled quilt runs out of first. It is also straight stitch only, so it cannot be your only machine.
2. Brother NQ3550W - the answer if embroidery is also on the list
291 sewing stitches, 258 embroidery designs, a 6 x 10 in embroidery field and 8.3 x 4.1 in of usable space at the needle. One machine, both crafts. See the NQ3550W review for the embroidery side, or combination machine vs dedicated quilting machine for the whole trade.
The honest drawback: 4.1 in of height is the smallest opening on this page - less than three quarters of the PQ1600S’s 5.7 in. Brother also publishes no sewing speed, no weight and no machine dimensions for it, so three of this page’s five criteria simply cannot be checked.
3. Brother PQ1500SL - the same idea, slightly smaller, harder to buy
Brother publishes 5.7″ x 8.6″ of work space, a knee lifter, 1,500 spm and a needle plate marked in inches. It is the PQ1600S minus 0.1 in of width and the pin feed.
The honest drawback, and it is a practical one: we have no current Amazon listing for this machine. Its buy link goes to a tagged Amazon search rather than a product page, and we show no price because we hold no verified live price for it. Brother also publishes “Free Motion Quilting Foot: No” for it, where the cheaper CS7000X and XR3774 both include one.
4. Brother CS7000X - the honest budget answer
A walking foot, a quilting foot, a quilt guide, a wide table and a hard cover, all in the box, on a 10.5 lb machine with 70 stitches. For piecing and for quilting up to throw size this is a genuinely capable machine, and it is the cheapest thing here by a wide margin.
The honest drawback: Brother publishes no needle-to-arm figure for it at all, so the dimension that decides large-quilt work is unknowable from the specification. 750 spm is half the PQ rate, and there is no knee lifter. We have ranked it last on a quilting page for those reasons, not because it is a bad machine. Full CS7000X review.
The rest of the cheap tier, now reviewed individually
Brother CP100X. The same published chassis and weight as the CS7000X with 100 stitches instead of 70, a metal frame, a fixed needle bar and more quilting accessories in the box - a quarter-inch piecing foot as well as the walking foot, quilting foot and guide. Brother markets it on a “large needle-to-arm workspace” and publishes no figure for it. Full CP100X review.
Brother XR3774. Brother publishes 37 stitches, 800 spm, 12.3 lb, a darning plate and a free-motion quilting foot. Dial-selected with no display at all. Same missing figure as the others. Full XR3774 review.
Brother XR9550 and HC1850. Also titled “Sewing and Quilting Machine” by Brother, and bigger stitch libraries than any PQ machine: 165 and 185 respectively, both including 55 alphanumeric characters. The HC1850 publishes 850 spm, the fastest figure in this tier; the XR9550 publishes no speed at all. XR9550 review and HC1850 review.
Skip this
Skip the whole Brother range in two cases
If height is your binding constraint. Brother’s best published opening height is 5.7 in. The Juki TL-2010Q publishes 6 in and the Janome HD8 publishes 9 in of width. The straight-stitch tier across all three brands is ranked on the straight-stitch roundup.
If you need more than about 9 in of anything. No domestic machine from any brand goes much past it; domestic vs longarm is the page for that decision, and what a longarm actually costs prices it.
Choosing in two questions
Do you also want to embroider? If yes, the NQ3550W, and accept the 4.1 in opening. If no, a PQ machine, and accept that it sews one stitch.
Is this your only machine? If yes, the PQ line is the wrong shape entirely - one stitch cannot finish a seam or make a buttonhole - and the CS7000X is the honest answer, with the throat figure you will never be shown. If no, buy the PQ1600S and keep the machine you have for everything else.
