I've had a longarm since summer. Before that I had a mid-arm and just did meandering. I actually had more trouble learning the computer portion of that longarm than I do with the freemotion. I posted a pic called "Take 5 quilt that I quilted"....I drew the curved crosshatching and feather designs in with a water soluble pen. I have to - just can't do it otherwise. The flower in the center of the blocks is totally freehand...no drawing. Check with your local dealers and see if anyone will let you "play" with a machine in the shop -- ours has them set up for demo purposes. Or look for longarm conventions in your area.