pbrawdy

Do you really need to buy a quilting machine? vs just using a regular sewing machine... Other than increase in speed, exactly what does a quilting machine do for you? I am going to buy a new machine and I have been trying to figure out what features I really need... Paula

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

Larger throat space makes quilting larger things easier. A true long arm machine makes designs possible that will never happen on a regular sewing machine.

hobo2000

If you want a wonderful straight stitch machine with a huge throat, look at the Brother Nouvelle 1500. It is wonderful.

carolaug

The quilting machines have a larger throat....I wish they would make them bigger...they are still not very long. I guess they do that so they can get us to buy a long arm....someday...that is on my bucket wish list.

RkayD

My Bernina 830 came with a quilt frame. I love that I can set up a quilt and quilt it with my machine. But the machine is very heavy and I'm not very tall or very strong and you have to lift it up and over to get it set right. There are days I wish I didn't have to do that....but other than that it works perfectly and I am glad I can do that. All the machines I looked at were very pricey and I toyed with the idea of a full blown quilt machine...but I can quilt and embroider and sew...I feel I got the best of all worlds and the best deal for the money.

Candace

"Quilting" machines usually are marketed as such because as others said they can have a deeper throat. They also tend to have more stitches geared towards quilters like buttonhole, applique stitch etc. Sometimes they're packaged with feet quilters use frequently like the 1/4" and walkingfoot.

Yarn or Fabric

I have a Janome MC4900QC - the QC is for quilter's choice. It sews a lot faster than most of the other machines that are at my Saturday Sew-In that I hold once a month or so. I can finish 3 things in the time it takes a friend of mine to do 2 - her and I used to sew together all the time and I'd make sure I had busy work to keep me busy until she caught up lol. I'm going to miss her terribly after she moves away when her house sells :(

My machine doesn't have the longer throat. I wish it did. It would have been sweet.

When I was buying that machine, the dealer was trying to convince me to get the 9" throated machine. I didn't only because it didn't have the free arm which I really needed for other projects.

The 4900 is a great machine but ridiculously over priced. I wanted lots of fancy stitches and I have to say that I have barely ever used ANY of them!! Hindsight - buy the cheaper machine, buy the feet, save some money lol. Well. I treated myself. I wouldn't trade it for anything now :)

Maia B

Long arms have 16-26" throats and sew fast, but are straight stitch only machines. Then there are mid arms, 9-12" throats which vome in straight stitch only like the Viking MegaQuilter, the Pfaff Grand Quilter, the Janome 1600, and Babylock Quilter's Choice Pro. The janome 6600, Elna 7300 Quilting Queen, Babylock Quest Plus (soon to be the Serenade, with some new features), and the Pfaff Smarter are all cousin machines, very similar, with 9" harp/throat, integrated dual feed (built-in walking foot), needle up-down, auto sew (without the foot pedal), and elongation and mirroring of stitches. Some have auto cut, some don't. Some don't have a free arm. They run $1000-1500 new right now. I have the Babylock Quest Plus and I'm very happy with it, but if I'd known about the Pfaff Smarter I would likely have bought that since it has auto-cut, 9mm stitches, low bobbin warning, electronic tension, and uses Pfaff feet. I don't know of anything with IDT for less than $1000. I won't ever be without it again!

carolaug

Great POST! lots of good info...thanks

Katia

I have been struggling to decide what I want for weeks now. I have a Handiquilter frame so I was thinking that something with a larger throat would be good. But then the one I would really like, the Bernina 830 sells for more then a some long arm machines set ups. So maybe I should just go with a long arm. But then you need to have the frame set up and that takes up so much room.

Then yesterday I found the Patsy Thompson website and watched the first part of her beginner video and some of her other free demo videos online and she uses a Pfaff machine. Not sure which one, but she does beautiful things with it. She doesn't seem to need a longarm. So what to do, what to do?

Juki and Janome have a good (I think?) basic midarm that is built to put on a frame so that is also an idea. They are both under a 1000 I think on Ebay.

As you might figure out I am so confused. I would love to learn to do fantastic long arming and be able to make money doing it. But will I? Not even sure there is a market for such a thing in my area.

As you can tell, I am so confused. LOL