Thank you, Candace, and I see I used the wrong terminology, long bed rather than long arm! Thank you for your response. I guess that the long bed must have more space for "stuffing" your quilt as you are machine quilting? Would someone be able to tell me the horizontal space difference between the needle shaft and the machine body of the long and short beds? Is the vertical space the same? I love my FW, but I suspect that the same heavy duty body along with the feed dog that will lower would make the 301 just a little better for quilting/FMQ. Comments or help? ~G