Does anyone have a Grace or Hinterberg that you use your regular machine with? I am looking into purchasing one and I am not sure how fancy I should get. I am just starting out with machine quilting and I am not impressed with just using my machine by itself. Help

Hi, Tina from New York/Canadian border. Just had my first experience with my guild's quilt show. Very interesting and very educational.

Welcome. I have a Grace frame, it is sturdy, but not professional quality. I have it set up for king size, and it is a good thing I have a BIG rec room, that is for sure.

Do you use your home machine or a long arm?

I use a Grace GMQ with a mid-arm. I really like it, but already have the bug to get a long arm. It's really addictive. I have a 9 inch throat on my Juki, which gives me between 4-6 inches of quilting room. I think it might shrink to nothing with a smaller machine, but I don't know.

I have the Grace Pinnacle ... and a Babylock Quilters' Pro ... a little bigger throat than a basic portable sewing machine ...
it didn't take three quilts to understand that I could do more with a bigger machine ... interesting how much more creative you get when you can move more freely ...
the PLUS side to the system I purchased is: I can upgrade to anything up to an 18 inch mid-arm ....
depending on how important quilting is to you, your decision needs to be based on your space availability and how far you want to go.
For myself, I quilt for the practical reason that it holds the layers together. My biggest thrill is to stipple in a very relaxed manner ... I don't think I would ever want to quilt every available space of fabric ... but, there are many who very much want to and do accomplish some amazing thread pictures with their quilting ... if you are one of those, save your money for the biggest, best system you can get. <wave>

I have the Grace -- not sure which one - it's metal. Works great, but if I had lottsa $$$ I'd buy one that would electronically go up and down, etc. :) It will do up to a 108" (or close to that) quilt. I use a mid arm sewing machine on it. Considering the hook up --- that machine will STAY on it!!! The other thing I'd like is a long-arm because you can't do big designs on the mid-arm. However, it's better than nothing!

Yeah, um....I don't know how much quilting you could do with a standard throat on a frame. I mean, you could do *some* but me, with a 9" on a frame, I have to advance the quilt a lot more often by the end. You'd have to be prepared to quilt halfway through the quilt, then turn and reload, kwim?

Just sent you a private message.

I'm not sure you would get a lot of space to quilt with a regular machine, but it would be easier than trying to push the quilt through it on a table. Check out the Grace site. They have a number of frames that are very reasonable. I did find the best prices on them at sewvacdirect.com.