Originally Posted by passionforsewing
I am so thrilled at everyone's response. I too cannot afford a long arm quilter, which I have two very close friends of mine that own one and one has offered to do a couple of mine for "FREE", but cannot seem to take advantage of this. Feeling guilty I guess. I admit I too am soooooo slow at quilting, picked up one that I've been working on this morning and have started with the long stitches and I'm actually liking it, but still it's too slow for me. Think I will stop worrying so much about it all now and be happy with the "tops" finished. Thanks to everyone who came to my "rescue". I feel so much better now.
I am a longarm quilter and I have to chim in here. There is longarm quilting and there is longarm quilting. Ask your friends how much they charge for a simple, open, all-over pattern. For a queen size quilt, and a large pattern, I might charge as little as $70, or even less to just make straight lines or outline blocks.
Also, as a friend, you might pay them half price if you are not comfortable with letting them do it for free. However, they probably offered to do it for free because it is great practice for them.