When funds are limited, you can concider e-bay and craig's list. If you havn't noticed, some of the older machines have a longer throat. The machine I have has a 9"throat. When I start the quilt I have under 7" of space to work with. As the quilt winds around the rod, that space gets smaller. I do attempt to roll it as tight on the rod as possible to keep the space from shrinking too fast. Put your machine in position and give her a test drive. -- Start with a small practice quilt. My 1st practice was a queen size and I was very flustrated fast. Have fun.