I have a Bernina Frame, not a Grace. I am a Bernina Die Hard and have been for 25 years. I still have my 930 and have never had it in the shop or adjusted the tension. I am afraid to step out of the box as you cant beat the tension. Also, there will come a time when I will want a bigger frame, my thoughts are I would still have a good machine. I appreciate your feedback, It is a tough decision on which way to go.

I have the 830LE and the Bernina/Gracie frame. I have done one quilt so far and it was wonderful! I had used a Juki on a frame before, and the extra room with the 830 made such a big difference. The 830 is an awesome machine. That being said, if you love you 440 for piecing, and don't want to use it to trade up to an 830, then perhaps one of the starter long arms might be the way to go. The 830 does so much and I love machine embroidery, so it was the best fit for me. The frame is 120 inches and the quilt I did was about 100 x 110".

Oh, the Bernina frame is made by the Grace company. The Bernina site has video on loading the quilt on the frame. It was a big help for me.

Bernina makes sewing machines but they don't even "make" all of those. My friend's Bernette embroidery machine is nothing like a real Bernina and it didn't cost near as much as the real thing. My guess is it is really a re-branded Brother or Simplicity. Berina used Grace to make frames for them. Grace makes frames and darn good ones for the most part. Check out the Grace Pinnacle at http://www.graceframe.com/site/machineframes/pinnacle

Viking did the same thing with the Inspira frame (now known as Gold Standard) by New Joy when they introduced the little Mega Quilter. For the 18.8 Mega Quilter--they used Tin Lizzie. Many of the manufacturers have partnerships like this. It takes scads & scads of money to develop new products. It is much cheaper to contact someone who all ready makes a product you want to develop and pay them to put your brand on it.

I have the Pinnicle and it took the professional installer 6 hours to put it togather. Way to many pieces and the rod that goes inside the throat is large and takes up alot of room if you use a strait stitch machine with just a 9 in throat.
The rods are not that sturdy and I have to be careful not to lean on the one that you have a tendency to lean on.
I did get a good price. The frame and a Baby Lock Jane machine was only $1500 at my local shop.