Please, please please, please please ...... DO NOT make the mistake that I made. I bought an HQ-16 on impulse a few years back and ended up selling it. First of all, let me just comment that it takes a good deal of practice to become proficient with those machines. If you cannot make that type of time investment, then your money investment will be wasted. Also, the machine set up required alot of space and occupied most of my craft room. What a pain ......
Sewing and quilting is only one of my many passions, since I enjoy rubber stamping, basket weaving, and knitting too. I could not even get to my rubber stamping and basket making stuff because it all had to be packed away to make room for the HQ-16. I finally sold the HQ-16 ...... and, let me tell you that it was not easy to get rid of it. I ended up losing a ton of money because I had to let it go cheap. So, my advice is that you just take your time in making this decision. Long arm machine quilting is not for all of us....... I'm perfectly content quilting on my Bernina QE 440 with stitch regulator. Cheaper machine, takes up no space, and I'm happy with the end product. I will admit that I send out large bed sized quilts to a professional long arm quilter, but it's worth it to me. Doing the math, I'd have to make an awful lot of large bed quilts before the LA quilting fees would even begin to total $20, 000 ...... never gonna happen, since most of my quilts are lap sized or smaller. In the end, if you decide you do want a long arm, then you should definitely do your research and try out as many machines as you can. In retrospect, I think I would have spent a tad more money and gotten a better quality machine than the HQ-16;I did not think it was all that it was cracked up to be.