While I love the work that long-armers do, I can't afford to send all my quilts out. I am with you, shnnn, mine is not perfect, especially if you get up close, but the overall effect is pretty and I am happy with it. I think I have gotten pretty decent at meandering though. Plus it is all mine. I will keep getting better and look forward to broadening my skills.
The Janome 7700 - that has an 11 inch harp, right? I wish I could get a machine with that big of a harp. My dh thinks that the $600 I want to spend on the Brother PQ1500 is expensive. I told him it really isn't. I settled on the Brother as most people that have it love it, it is fast, and what it does it does well. Plus has a bigger harp space than what I have now. I have all of the fancy stitches, etc on my Janome 4800 - so if I need any of that - I can use that machine. That is wonderful that your husband saw it as the investment that it was. I am hopeful that with a 9 inch harp space, while I am sure it will feel tight in the middle - hopefully doing my bigger top on it will feel like doing a twin/full on my smaller machine.
shnnn - you mentioned doing a king on a Singer. I am imagining the harp space wouldn't be more than about 6"? One of the tradeoffs for getting another sewing machine is that I am not sending out my almost king top to be quilted by someone else. I am very nervous about starting it though, for fear that I will be overwhelmed by the size of it. I am encouraged when someone says they have successfully done this on a machine with a less than generous harp space - because the best it is going to get for me is 9" for awhile.
Korners - I spray baste my quilts. I have never tried pinning, not sure how that would work. I have found that I like a spray called 505 spray. It is odorless, and lightly spraying works fine. On my last quilt and my current one (approx 60 x 72) I have not even bothered to thread baste around the perimeter. I have not had any issues with puckering, needle does not get gummed up, etc. Other sprays have a very heavy fume, and I have had some issues with the needle gumming up, thread breaking with those sprays (think it was June Tailor. Many love that spray, others don't. I have had better luck with the 505). Also, I do not use clamps, and I don't necessarily roll either. I kind of loosely roll, but as I move around on my quilt, I am kind of pushing and shoving it where I need it to be. I find that I have more trouble with the drag on the quilt than the actual FMQ. That seems the hardest thing to me - figuring out how to manage the bulk of the quilt while FMQing. Different techniques seem to work better for different people - so it is a matter of experimentation. I say - put together a bunch of smaller quilt sandwiches to practice on, and just jump in!
It really does get easier quickly with practice.
It would be best if you had your sewing machine in a set up where the bed of it is level with your table (such as a sewing table). I don't have that right now. I do have an acrylic extension table for my machine - but it is raised up several inches above the table my sewing machine is on - and there is too much drag with my quilt getting hung up on corners. So I am stuck with the space on the bed of my machine. It would be easier with another set-up, but I figure if I can work with this - I will be in heaven when I am able to upgrade to a better set up.
Also, I found it helpful to watch FMQing clips on YouTube. Really helpful.