Originally Posted by
faykilgore
I see a lot on this board about long arm machines, but I don't have the space nor do I do enough large quilts to justify the cost. I am interested in one of the sit down type of quilting machines but know very little about them. I had a chance to demo Bernina's new one, but didn't ask the right questions, like what else will it do besides FMQ'ing. I've heard of back extensions, and side extensions for the tables they sit on. What are the pros and cons of that?
I keep a card table to the left of my HQ Sweet Sixteen, to hold the bulk of the quilt (I turn my quilt so I'm always quilting in the lower right quadrant to minimize the weight I have to push around). I also use the jennoop suspenders. I haven't heard of back extensions; I guess that would be an option if your machine was side-facing like a DSM. As Prism99 pointed out, there are no feed dogs, so if you want to do straight line stitching, you must learn to use a ruler. I really enjoy using my sit down machine. There's a yahoo group called 'HQ 16 Handi-Quilter Sit-Down Table Model' for users of the Sweet 16 (and the other brands that are basically the same), where you can find tons of information.