My machine has a 9" throat. I have a work area starting at appx 6" and as the quilt rolls up, it goes down to 4". I would figure that with a throat of 13" the work area would be appx 10" - 8". With the 17" throat the work area increases to appx 14" - 11". So, now determine how much space you need for the quilts you do. I find that the space I want to accommadate will be for a 12" block. I have done several 12" block type quilts that I had to do part of the block and complete the pattern after rolling the quilt resulting with not being able to have a continous stitching. If I were to get one, I would concider the larger one.
Last edited by DebbyT; 03-04-2012 at 08:00 AM.