alleyoop1

You look like you are starting the way I did. I bought a Bernina frame (built by Grace Co.) when they first came out. I used my domestic machine on it. This was possible but not easy. You don't have much room between the needle and the motor casing (harp space) for the take up roller (the roller the quilt rolls on as you quilt) so your actually quilt space ends up being about 3"-4". When it was time for an upgrade I went with a Bernina machine with a larger harp space so that I now have about 9"-10" quilt space. I wish I had gone for something like Qnique made by Grace Company or Block RockIt but my husband thinks the sun rises and sets in Bernina machines and our budget would not stretch far enough for the new Bernina long arm - it would have required a new frame as well. I have no experience with the Brother Dream Frame but I suggest you do a LOT of research and, if possible, go to several quilt shops and dealers who sell long arm frames and see them in person. See if your local Brother dealer has a Dream Frame set up. Find out how hard/easy it is to load a quilt, how large a quilt it will take, what machines will work with it. Lots of luck.
One last thing - we paid $1800 for our Bernina frame and it's large enough to do a king size quilt! And it will take a long arm machine and, if we wanted, it can be converted to computer driven quilting. I can also use pantographs and grooved boards on it.