I have the Janome 1600 DBX on a Gracie Gem Q Pro frame with the carriage upgrade. I got the whole she-bang. The stitch regulator(keeps me from tearing my hair out), the gracie pattern boards and the fabric leaders. It takes alot of practice, I have been practicing off and on for over a year now FMQ and it is pretty decent. My problem is the drag on the pantos. I removed the gracie boards and just use paper pantos now and it goes better. I still have to invest in a laser light. I just follow the lines with the stylus - Like a previous member said your design area is about 4 inches to 5 inches. You learn to get real creative on how you load the quilts, I float my tops just works better for me. But in all honesty I wish now that I had gotten the long arm. I LOVE the look of feathers done with a long arm. I invested in Sally Terry books and a craftsy class on FMQ. It just takes lots of practice and listening to the machine. I love my stitch regulator-really keeps the stitch consistent. My machine will do 1600 stitches a minute but who can move that fast over a pattern? I govern it down midway....My budget is shot from all this quilting shopping and long arm used to be out of my reach until I heard about Baileys LA machines. No frills, no bells no whistles and affordable. They have a layaway and when I called they said I could pay whatever I wanted to a month. But I am very happy with my set up, just investigate all options before you invest in a quilting package set up. A friend of mine has a big long arm all computerized with that intelliquilter stuff and it is breaking down all the time. It has now been done for over a month while she has been waiting for parts, and I just keep plugging along, 4 inches at a time! LOL! Sometimes more is just more and not practical. Have a great day stitching!