Tradition With A Twist

My most recent row swap row is called "tradition with a twist".  The idea is to make traditional blocks using brightly colored fabrics.  My row is the row on the bottom.  It is a Greek Cross block. 

My first attempt was this Day and Night block, which would have been very striking in green and solid black.  But, because the focus fabric (the black multicolored fabric) has so many colors in it, the pattern gets a little lost.  Eleanor Burns specifically warns against using a multicolor as the night fabric, but I wasn't thinking about that when I tried it. 

When that didn't work, I decided to go with a little simpler block instead.  I'm happy with how my finished row turned out.  We only have one more month left in the swap.  I'm really interested in seeing how all the quilts turn out.

Little Mittens top complete

Last night I finally finished the appliqued strings that connect the pairs of mittens in my "Little Mittens" quilt top.  I'm very happy to have all of that applique behind me.  That's one more completed quilt top for the pile.  Now I just need to find backing fabric and binding fabric, then it can get quilted . . . eventually.

Coco in Scraps

Just for fun, I thought I would post a picture of my fluffy black cat playing in my fabric scraps.  As any quilter with a cat knows, cats love to help out any way they can.  At least I'm sure they think they are helping. . .

Sewing Machines

I'm looking for some advice on sewing machines.  I'd really like to get a new sewing machine, but I'm not sure what to buy.  I want to get a good quality machine, but I don't want to pay for a lot of features that I don't really think I will use. 
Here are the features I'm really looking for in a machine:
A good 1/4 inch foot that will sew a good straight seam.  (The one I have now tends to veer to the side pretty badly, especially when I cross a seam.)
Sews well on paper, because I do a lot of paper piecing.  (The machine I have now seems to have tension issues/inconsistencies with paper piecing.) 
Sews well over thick seams.  (My current machine likes to just stop and sew in place when it gets to a seam of practically any thickness.)
A good walking foot for attaching binding or simple straight line quilting.  (My current walking foot doesn't even rest evenly on the fabric for some reason)

Nice but not necessary features:
Needle Up/Down feature
Auto thread cutting
Auto stitch lock feature

Features I don't need:
Free-motion quilt - don't do it, don't plan to start
Lots of fancy stitches

My current machine is a Singer 5830C (I think, that's the only thing on the machine that looked like a model number). 

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.