I have the opportunity to purchase a 18x8 long arm at a really good price, I am just not sure if it is worth the investment. I am in the early stages of my quilting and I have a really hard time quilting on my machine. But I am still on the fence. Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks

i would say, it depends on how much your going to use it..i had a juki and a gracie pro frame, and i could not handle it physically.( i have fibromyalgia) and the standing to quilt, was not working out.
are you going to do quilts for others or just yourself? i paid under 2 grand for my set up..new.
good luck with your descision..
there is a yahoo message board on nothing but longarms,in thier files, they have a section that people wrote what they have, machine and frame, and the prices,pros and cons. pretty helpful i think.
www.homequiltingsystems.com is the link, i think.

If you are getting it for a really good price you can always get it and if you don't like it you can always sell it. In the back of my mind I know that if I don't like my Voyager I can hopefully sell her and not take too big of a loss.

I'm hoping to get the encoders from the stitch regulator installed today so that I can start practicing. I'm really looking forward to working on it! I have had it for quite awhile and have not even got to play yet :(

that's my someday dream- to have a long arm. with just 4 years of quilting under my belt, I'm getting closer to the goal of feeling experienced enough to handle it. I'd love to find a used one close to me where I could learn before buying.

Perhaps- look at the "big picture" too- are you committed to quilting and will you use it enough to make it worth the investment? Then reserch the heck out of it.

I wish you lived closed to me (GA) I have a HandiQuilter that I rent out. I had one friend use it because she is in the market for a long arm.

I, too, was a fairly new quilter when I purchased my HQ-16 long arm. Like you, I was having trouble doing FMQ on my standard sewing machine. I would never have put out that amount of cash into a quilting machine, but my Mom had just died and left me some inheritance money. Convinced that Mom would have wanted me to "enjoy" some of her gift, I purcheased the H-Q on an impulse. I ended up selling it 2 years later and I don't regret that decision. The long arm took up so much space and it just wasn't getting used enough to justify keeping it. Also, I found that learning to long arm quilt did not come naturally to me ...... it looks easy, but it takes ALOT of time & practice to become good at it. Just wasn't for me. I ended up taking the $$$ I got from the resale of the HQ-16 and I bought a Bernina QE with stitch regulator. I took to it like a fish in water. I love it!!! I can manage a lap quilt with it;For anything larger, I take it to a local gal who does long arm quilting. Since most of my quilts are lap sized or smaller, this works for me ...

I purchased a Bernina 430 several years ago to replace my original 29-year-old Bernina. I bought it as a "do everything" machine as I also sew clothing. I've been quilting only 2-3 years and bought the Bernina BSR and have enjoyed learning how to quilt with it. It's fabulous for smaller projects. But I had a hard time wrestling with all the bulk of larger projects.

My DH built machine quilt frame last year and I put the Bernina on it. After completing several quilts with it, the throat space was too small to do much more than lap size quilts. So last spring, I graduated to a Janome 1600P (with a 9-inch throat) on the frame and really like it so far. I figure that I will continue to use this setup and improve my skills until it's time to move back to the mainland in a year or two. At that time, I hope to move up to a long-arm setup.