hi thx heaps for the site i shall look into what they say too. and thankyou it seem that you got yours for the same reason as me. confirms the thought that it would be good to go to a dealer to look at one.

thx jane

I was told by the dealer the sweet sixteen is a sit down machine. There is an HQ Avante 18 in. on frame and I have a friend who has it computerized and runs a business on it.

I have had my HQ 16 for a while now. I have it on a 12ft frame, but the frame I got is in 3 sections. I could if I wanted make the frame a 12 ft, 8 ft, or 4 ft. I do not have the computerize on mine, I know you can get it. I didn't have the extra money at the time I bought the HQ16. I was hoping to get that later. The HQ 16 is great and I love it.

hi thats sounds interesting, that you can down size the frame when needed, i shall look into that.

thx heaps jane

I looked at the Sweet 16 and the Tin Lizzie sit down models. I ended up with the Lizzie. I've had really great rep support. She has been to my house 3 times (long story, solved now) and the machine stitches wonderfully. I love the machine and it's cheaper than the 16. With the difference in money, I purchased a Juki 2000 which I absolutely love.

I chose the Lizzie sit down instead because I liked the machine orientation, side to side like a home machine so that if I needed to move the handwheel, I would not have to get up and walk around the back to do that. I'm not sure what is available across the western pond but if you have the Lizzie option, I'd compare the two.

There is a yahoogroup full of happy Sweet owners. Everyone I know of that has had a HQ machine love theirs :)