WHEN did you decide to buy a LA?
I made the decision to invest in a mid-arm early last year after I did my 1st couple free motion projects on my little White Jeans Machine which I have been using for all my sewing needs for many many years. Before that I spent the Winter doing a lot of internet reading, watching you-tube videos, information boards, and looking at used prices compared to new & definitely bought used as it seemed like a lot of $$ to spend on my hobby. But my hand quilting days are coming to an end w/arthritis setting in enough to make it not so much fun to hand quilt anymore without lots of pain and I refuse to pay someone else to do quilting for me so I know machine quilting is something I need to teach myself to do. But I do bed quilts, not a lot of wall hangings & little quilts. I ended up w/a Juki w/a 9"throat to drop into my sewing table for my piecing machine and any future attempts at free motion quilting at my sewing table... ; and a Brother 1500 9"throat on a New Joy Gold Frame. After getting comfortable w/the Brother on the frame doing lots of charity quilts for our guild, I kept my eyes open for any bargains on a 15"-20" LA as it seemed to be in my future - but I still balked at the spending that kind of money. About two months ago I found an excellent deal on a Tin Lizzie Eighteen w/a solid 12' frame & I am now a happy camper for quite a long time I think. At 18" it still seems quite large to me, & I haven't quite gotten to the point of feeling comfortable doing much free motion, but I love working w/pantographs.
Like HOW LONG were you involved in making quilts before you decided you NEEDED a LA?
I have been working away at making quilts since I was a pre-teen - self taught - so I'm one of those going on well over 40 years. No one in my family did it, I just got myself into sewing, knitting & crocheting doll clothes, my own clothes, then making quilts. Long before all the tools available these days, which took me a long time to even start using. I used cardboard templates, scissors and hand cut individual pieces -(tho rotary cutters & the 24" mats have been around for many years for strip cutting :); hand pieced & appliqued a lot of my quilts tho simple patchwork was done on my current domestic machine; and always hand quilted them myself either in a lap hoop in front of the fireplace & TV or rolled onto a floor frame my Dad found at an estate sale about 10 yrs ago. SO it's not like I've turned out hundreds of quilts, but lots of them have been in local & state shows & are all still around.
Did you get tired of paying to have someone else quilt your quilts?
Did you want to start up a business to make money at it?
How long did it actually take to make the purchase? months? years?
Personally I have a problem paying someone else to do my quilting, to me that is just part of the process & I do enjoy each part of the process. Of course quilting has never been something I spent major $$ on either. My stash began as leftovers from clothing projects, etc...& I don't tend to pay quilt shop prices for any of my fabrics. I don't intend to start up a business, but I've had quite a few of our guild ladies ask me to let them know when I'm ready to do some quilting for them, they'll gladly pay me the going rate to take care of their closets full of quilt tops as they don't like the quilting part of the process themselves and we are pretty far removed from a lot of LA'ers. So I think I will be taking in some outside quilts to do as I don't turn out that many quilts myself and it will give me something to always be working on on the frame, but will keep the numbers severely limited so that I continue to enjoy the process - not get bogged into rushes & timelines, etc....If I want I cay justify the expense that way also, it wouldn't take that long to basically cover the cost of my investment - and at this point it isn't necessary anyway. This is something I enjoy doing, I have the room, I'm making the time these days, I've raised my kids, it's my turn to spend my time doing what I enjoy doing while I still can!