Hi. I posted this question in the "Intro" area, but I haven't gotten any responses, so I'm hoping that I can go into more detail in this part of the forum and get some help.

I am wanting to buy a quilting machine to use at home. I've been just doing the tops on my cheap Brother sewing machine, and then I have been hand quilting from there.

Somebody told me that I should get a Handi Quilter, but I checked on one, and it was around $8000 bucks. That's definitely out of my price range.

Is there a machine that will do the quilting without costing me more than $2000?? I could even buy a refurbished or used one, but I don't know where to find one.

Any advice??
Thanks,
Cyndi
[email protected]

Hi Cyndi,

A long arm machine is very expensive and $8000 is pretty much as low as they go. Of course that includes a rack and stitch regulator.

It is possible to quilt on a domestic sewing machine. You can even use the machine you have now if you can get a walking foot for it and a free motion quilting foot (also known as a darning foot or a big foot).

You may want to go to your local library and see if they have any books on machine quilting methods. Harriet Hargrave and Diane Gaudynski are two very famous DSM quilters. Also here is a great blog with video how toos on DSM FMQ http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

Thanks. I'll check that out.

If there is a really good machine that y'all would recommend, please let me know. My machine is really old. I want to be able to quilt and probably do embroidery too.

Most people quilt on their home sewing machines. That is definitely the least expensive option! This can even be done on a cheap Brother. It helps, though, to have a good quality machine. Many people here like the Janome 6000p, which is a domestic machine with a longer throat and many features. Cost for that is around $1,500 and it can be used for home sewing and piecing as well as quilting.

For quilting only, the Handiquilter and other home quilting systems start at around $1,500. In general, the lower the cost the smaller the harp area of the machine. (The harp is the area under the arm where you fit in the rolled-up quilt.) Harp area is important because it determines what size area you can quilt towards the end of your quilt. Rule of thumb is to allow at least 7 inches of harp area for the quilt roll for machine/frame setups. Midarm machines start at around 13" of harp area, which leaves only about 5" of quilting area when you get to the end of a large quilt. Longarm machines start at around 16" of harp area.

I would recommend joining the homequiltingsystems group at http://groups.yahoo.com to learn more about the many different types of quilt frame setups.

Meanwhile, if you simply want to start quilting your own quilts, I recommend purchasing a better quality domestic machine to start with. The midarm/frame setups, although becoming more common, are typically for experienced quilters who know they will use it enough to be worth the expense.

If you want to do embroidery as well as quilting and sewing your going to have to buy an older, used machine for $2,000. You should go to a dealer in your area and ask about used machines and start there to look at machines. It sounds like you have no idea what's on the market and instead of spending a million hours googling, pop by a sewing machine dealer and test drive a bunch.

The only quilting/embroidery machines I know of still cost more than $2,000 even when used--Janome 10000/11000, Babylock Ellisimo or Elegante 2, Singer Quantum XL series and the Bernina 8xx series. There might be some older Viking Lily's or Rose's that come in around that price. Embroidery didn't interest me enough to pay for that feature so my criteria was largest harp size I could find & nice built in stitches to finish hems and topstitch bindings. I also knew I needed a heavier duty motor than most domestic machines have so that really narrowed my choices down to Janome MC6500p (at that time--now it's a MC6600p) and it's Elna cousin, 7200 QDP (now the 7300). You should be able to find used MC6500p's well under $1,000 by now. The Elna's seem to be more scarce.

My advice is to buy an embroidery only machine like the little Brother PE machines and spend the big bucks on the Elna or Janome. You should still be able to get both, especially if you buy gently used, for well under $2,000 and you'll have the best of both worlds.

Beverly

There are definitely older Vikings and Pfaffs that do embroidery too, for under 2 Grand. But, you're talking about machines that are probably at least 10 years old. Like the Viking 1+ series etc. Also, these machines have a smaller embroidery space then current ones and the technology isn't what it is now. I spent a lot of time researching older machines in search of a back-up.

I just purchase the Janome 6600 for $1049. Its a great machine. Janome is coming out with a new machine in May that replaces the 6600. If you don't mind getting a used one you could probably at that point pick-up a used 6600 for under $1000.

I went this route, even though I want to do embroidery. I weighed getting an all-in-one which if its embroidering, I can't piece or end up getting 2 machines that can be working at the same time. Just my preference.

Good Luck I know its mind-boggling.
:-D

Check out the Bailey quilter.

http://www.baileyssewingcenter.com/homequilter.html

nice link