Has anyone ever downgraded ?
Have any of you ever " downgraded " from machine quilting on a frame back to quilting at the table ? I ask this because I currently have a Brother PQ1500 on a grace frame. I have had this setup now for about 8 months and until recently I have really enjoyed it.
Here is the trouble. Now that I am getting better at my piecing and my quilts are getting more detailed, I want to be able to continue that detail into my quilting itself. With the BrotherPQ1500 that available space, is limiting. Unless I make all by blocks really small, there is no way I can quilt a full block at a time, and if I try to do it in sections, it comes out looking choppy, due to all the stops and starts inside the block from having to stop and advance.
I recently made a top that I was, and still am very proud of, and for the first time EVER, I am feeling very disappointed in myself for how it was quilted. I took the " easy way " and stuck to my standard stipple, even though this quilt would have really shined like the sun had I not done it on the frame.
Moving my machine on and off the frame is not really an option since the frame itself takes up a large portion of my room, it does not leave me enough space anywhere else to quilt anything larger than a baby quilt. Plus it is not the easiest thing to pick up and move all the time.
Upgrading to a larger machine, while on my " when we win the lotto " list, is not financially realistic at this point. So I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience with the limitations of a smaller mid-arm / frame setup and gone back to a no frame setup again.