My reason for wanting to be able to shorten the frame is the same as Rose Marie's. I bought the LA thinking I would do it as a business. I tried for a couple years and now it's not fun anymore-it's a job. The room that it is in is my sewing room. My grandkids all want to learn to sew and make quilts and doll clothes. When we work on a project the LA has to be moved out of the way to have room to get to the sewing machines-2 or 3 kids want to sew at the same time-I have enough sewing machines but not enough room. I figure a frame that is big enough to quilt up to a twin size would be much smaller for the room and would accommodate what we would be making and then when I make an occasional king size for my bed I could convert the frame to fit it, quilt it, and convert back to small size again. Converting would not be a problem. I am fairly mechanical and my husband is a licensed airplane mechanic so between the two of us we could handle the conversion. I just need to find a LA head with a decent sewing area that the Grace frame would be strong enough to support. My LA is an A-1 with an 18" sewing space. I understand that I probably won't find that size in something to go with the Grace frame. I am hoping for more than 8" though. That's all the Bernina quilting system has, but it uses the Grace convertible frame. I visited my local Bernina dealer and spoke to them about converting the frame. It doesn't sound very difficult.