Before I purchased my inexpensive long arm, I tried quilting on my regular sewing machine. I had two, a Kenmore that I purchased many years ago and and Brother sewing/embroidery machine, Even tho both would sew backstitch, and both could drop the feed dogs, (and the Brother could sew diagonal and sideways, neither one worked with quilting in a free-motion format. They just woldn't keep the tension right and the back always had onestraight thread held in place with lots of loops. So I took a quilt sandwich about 12 x 12 inches to a sewing machine store (a sew-vac store), told them I wanted to try out several of their machines, and the one that actually worked the best at free-motion quilting was a VERY inexpensive WHITE brand (about $150) and I use it all the time for free-motion quilting that I don't do on the quilting frame with my Bailey Long Arm (which by the way is a few thousand dollars less than the long arms that always get the spotlight on TV quilting shows.