Each of us has different needs and different goals when it comes to quilting. Some like the look and feel of hand quilting and have the patience and the time to do it. I love it too but my hands can no longer cope with the stresses of hand quilting. The introduction of the Longarm into my home has been both a learning curve of some magnitude, but I have now completed 11 quilts which I am very happy with and I did not pay a LAer the $1000 or more that I would have spent. I tried hard to do FMQ on the small sewing machine and I did pretty well (over 30 quilts). LArge quilts were always problematic. There is no comparison with the results on the LA. I like the fact that I can do BIG quilts with little stress and the results are super. Glad I bought the LA. Glad, Glad GLAD!!!! I know it will pay for itself.