Thread: Gammill Owners - Questions and Thoughts

I have a quilting pal who is a Gammill owner (bought hers about 10 years ago) - also a rep - who was kind enough to invite me to her home last evening to share with me her setup and talk to me all about her Gammill. I have a few questions for you Gammill owners and really would love to have some honest feedback (while I'm not standing in front of the machine and under it's spell!)


- Did you purchase your Gammill with the intentions of opening a long arm business?

- If you have other long armers in your area and given the economy, do you think it's unrealistic to purchase a machine like this hoping to quilt enough quilts to make the monthly payments?

- How soon after purchasing did you feel comfortable charging others for your quilting?

- How do you feel about Gammill versus other setups, namely the Handiquilter, APQS, or A1 machines?

- I'm interested in the Vision 22, what kind of monthly payments am I looking at if I finance something like that, and what does that mean in terms of how many quilts am I going to need to quilt to make that payment?

I am really conflicted as to if I'd like to purchase one of these and open a business. I would definitely like to do some quilting for others but I'm just not sure if I could drum up the business or not to pay for a new machine. We have several long armers who literally live just up the road from me and have really great reputations and solid foundations in our local quilting community. When I started looking at these I didn't know what I wanted to do with my quilting but the more I think about it - long arming seems like something I'd really love and could get good at. But I don't want to regret jumping into something too quickly.

I've had a Gammill Classic since '96. It's a real work horse. My only problems with it are tension, tension, tension. I struggle with it if I change threads. I looked at APQS when I bought mine, was at a show, saw that they weren't interested in answering questions from people who already had them- just potential buyers. That turned me OFF big time. That could have been a singular event. I was told by an onlooker that it was the owners mother that made the statement, don't know if that was true.
I have long since paid for my machine but didn't do it with the money earned from the machine, because I didn't want the pressure. I bought because we had an "at Home" business and I thought I could use it if my husband got hurt and needed care. It is a "bear" to move so plan carefully. There are many longarmers nearby and we each have our special niche. It took me 4 months of heavy practice before I was confindent enough to charge.

Thank you I really appreciate your insight!

I live in a small town and I have some time to research before I buy but the reality is, where I'm located, I doubt I'll get to test drive too many machines before purchasing so I'm relying heavily on the feedback of others and my own research. I really liked the solid feel of the Gammill and it has really lured me away from some of the machines I had been looking at previously.

I think what you really need to ask yourself is do you want to open ANY type of home-based business? I would talk to an accountant who specializes in small businesses to see what the ramifications are. How comfortable are you with debt in general? Your friend/rep should be able to give you a ballpark idea of the monthly payments. on a new machine. You can then determine if you can still make the payments during your learning curve, or in slow months.
Sounds like there's lots of quilting going on in your area. I would contact the other Long Arm quilters and your rep and see if someone would rent you time on their machine (after Christmas of course!). I'd try to see if I could do an entire small quilt. This should give you an idea of how long your learning curve will be.

We have been renting Gammill's for 6 years in our shop. We have been selling them for 2 years. We have 5 machines to rent. We quilt for others and have sold many machines....as far as I can see there is still a demand for long arm quilters. I think the demand is still growing. Styles of quilting may be the change that some quilters may have to make to keep busy.

I had an additional thought. if you notice, a lot of the regular posters who have LA businesses on this board are not giving their opinions here, or actually posting on any threads. It's not because they don't care I'm guessing it's probably because they are sooooo busy getting gift quilts out the door they don't have time for anything else. Is this something you want to add to an already busy time of the year?

Those are true and valid thoughts!! Thank you all so much for your insight, I truly am listening (er, reading) all of your thoughts and taking them to heart.

About running a business from home - this is a biggie. To be honest, I'm in the middle on it. That's part of why I'm asking here. If I finance something, then without a doubt that means I'm going to be going into a full blown business. Where as, if I buy something used and have no loan, then I can move things at my own pace, but I will likely have to settle for what I can find rather than what I want. We have worked really hard to be smart with our money and if I buy something new - more expensive than my car - this will be the riskiest purchase I have ever made.

Can we afford the payments? Yes, but we don't want to. We paid off both of our cars so if there's a month that I can't make the payment from business then we can swing it, but it will be a strain, like having car payments again. Ideally I'd like to not have to take from our regular budget if I can swing it, but I am realistic that things rarely go as planned.

Also, with the business, I may be ready and willing to have a home based business, but I'm not sure if my family is. This is something to ponder.