I, too, would love a long arm machine but it's not really in my future. About a year ago i finished a king size quilt on my Janome 6600. I only did stippling on it but it went a lot easier than i thought it would and I encourage you to try. I scrunched rather than rolled and found I could control the quilt better. This is is now i my spare room and I love looking at it. Good luck and post a picture when you do a larger quilt.