Before I got my long arm, I quilted on my sewing machine. I didn't take a class but really think it would have made the whole process of learning a lot less painful. As it was, I just sat down with a muslin quilt sandwich and some bright red thread and quilted away until I had gotten a stitch that I could live with. The thing is, doing bigger quilts is always a nightmare. There are still times when I prefer to use my sewing machine--when I'm doing small projects such as purses, for example. It just doesn't seem worthwhile to load up the longarm for that. By all means, though, if you can take a class, do it. You'll learn faster that way and with less aggravation.