longarm machine
 

new to machine quilting I send off or hand quilt my quilts sooo i'm wondering do they make a longarm quilter that goes by itself? Like the embroidery machines.and if so what brands your opinion would be appreciated Thank you for your response.
God Bless
Loretta

LA quilting setups come in a wide variety of abilities and prices....and opinions on the best setup are just as many! If you do a search here on the board you will find many, many different threads about LA and the corresponding opinions. I have found my perfect LA machine....but....it appears that I will have to wait for my ship to come in, or take out a second mortage on the house! LOL

I think you are asking about a computer guided long arm and boy are you going to pay for that convenience!!!! As much as a car, I dare say!

There are computer guided LAs but you are talking a lot of moola - probably around 30 grand (yes that is correct). Some of the machines - I know Innova is one because I have been looking at it - you can get with just the stitch regulator (for about half) and then later if you still want to add the computerized part. I don't personally know anyone who has the computerized so don't really know anything about it other than it sounds cool I will be watching this thread

You can get a used setup starting at around $15,000 (very hard to find that cheap) but closer to $20,000. I got lucky, bought a demo Tin Lizzie a few years ago, and used an inheritance to add robotics last fall. Still was NOT cheap. And it isn't even close to being as easy as an embroidery machine (i have one ) Do LOTS of research and join some yahoo groups.

The only one I'm familiar with is the Gammill Statler Stitcher, again, about $30,000 or so...they do beautiful work, but I can't afford one so I'm reduced to drooling when I get to see one.....:)...maybe one of these days!

I have a Gammill - Statler Stitcher and, while they are nice, they will put a dent in your budget. I have close to 30k in mine. It still requires the same amount of work to mount the quilt and then you have to do all of your setup for the quilting. There are days that I wonder if it really saves any time at all.

Gammill is not the only company that sells computer-aided quilting setups, but it would be fairly accurate to say that Gammill is the "Cadillac" of them. There are some setups that are sold as a package, and some setups that require a separate purchase of a computer and software to guide the machine. I've heard of PCQ and MQR software, and I have a friend who just purchased an 18" HandiQuilter with Pro-Stitcher. It's a very nice setup, but she paid north of $15K for it. Start saving your nickels!

Check out the new Bernina 7 series machines with a quilt frame and QuiltMotion. I got mine for around $10,000. The harp space is only 10" but it works. You'll have to turn your larger quilts, but it can be done.

I have a Viking 18x8 and a qbot, love it!!!