Gals, you are so right that it takes practice, practice and more practice. Our small quilt guild just bought an older model longarm (no frills of any kind) to quilt the quilts we make for people who lose their homes and possessions to fire as we did not have the money to have them machine quilted and too many of our guild are no longer able to hand quilt for various reasons. I have quilted a small charity quilt and believe me it would never do for one that was done for hire. several of the members thought it looked fine, but if you truthfully look and criticize your work you know it isn't. I am practicing on some bed sheets now on a pattern that we will probably use for some of our "fire" quilts and I am a LONNNNNGGGGG way from being reasonably good. I do enjoy doing it, but can see where it can be laborious as standing for a number of hours and using your arms and shoulders can be very tiring I am sure. Like several have said, buy it for your own use and then when you "know" you are good then try for some outside quilting. We have already had people ask us if we would quilt for them, and I politely but firmly tell them, it will be a long time before we are ready to quilt any quilts for hire (and most likely never will unless we need to raise money for more batting etc.) It certainly looks a lot easier to do than it is. One of the ladies that had wanted to learn on the machine when we purchased it, tried it and very quickly said, "that's not for me, you all have at it". I would love to have a newer machine of my own with a stitch regulator (which would be a must on any future purchase), but I don't have the room to put it or the funds to do it with for now and I am not going in debt for even a used one. So buy it for yourself and practice until you are blue in the face and see if you take to it like a duck to water. Some people never do. Just my two cents worth for the day. If you get a machine, have fun with it.