I got an HQ 16 several months ago. I think this is more of a mid-arm than long arm machine. I can't begin to tell you how much easier it is to quilt - trying to manuever all that fabric around with my domestic machine was driving me nuts! It was very hard for me to follow any pattern - I either stitched in the ditch or did free motion. I'm now starting to use patterns. I'm also getting UFOs quilted - I was putting them on a shelf because I wasn't ready for the struggle of quilting them. For me it was well worth the investment.