Hi, Steph. I am brand new to this Board, but was reading that you had ordered a Grace frame, I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth.
I bought one 2 years ago, with the Janome 1600P. Have only done one "practice piece" on it, mostly because I just haven't had time to fiddle with it, and I've had some physical/mental blocks due to a (benign)brain tumor I had that has slowed me down. I LOVE the Grace frame. There are a million pieces to put together, but the DVD and the instructions are wonderful, and DH and I put it together over about 3 days off and on. It is a marvelous piece of equipment. And another reason I really haven't used it is, in fact, the Janome machine. It just isn't big enough -- I spent half the time re-rolling it 4 inches at a time. And changing the bobbin on that machine is a real pain. But I decided to toughen up this week and load a quilt (I have 8 or 9 waiting to be quilted!) and try it. WEll, dang. Seems a certain young lady who shall remain nameless (but she's fat, grey, has four legs and a tail) decided the little spring around the tension wheels was a really cute play-pretty, so the machine went to the shop this morning. Found out I could probably go ahead and use it without the spring but they're ordering one for me. All this to say, I really want a longer-armed machine! Thinking seriously about the Bailey 15; I tried a Tin Lizzie at the Dallas show and loved it, but I really don't want to give up my Grace frame; and besides it costs too much for no more than I have time to devote to it. I'll be keeping watch to see how you like your set-up; the Grace Company is very nice to deal with as well.
marje, in HOT HUMID Dallas