I am definitely wired for stand up frame quilting. I found sit down FMQ awkward and no matter how much I tried to relax while doing it I constantly found myself all tensed up, especially around the shoulders and neck. Additionally I hated sandwiching with a white hot passion! I was not opposed to "quilting by check" and did send a larger quilt off to be quilted back when Green Fairy was still starting out and a member of this board. I was elated with the result and I could get a LOT of quilts professionally custom longarmed for the price of a setup. But I signed up to take a longarm class so I could rent and that was all she wrote. In that short time I realized I REALLY loved frame quilting, just as much, if not more than I loved piecing quilts. It came very naturally to me and I was definitely hooked. So then I made a list of pros and cons about purchasing a setup and started saving like a demon. While my love of it played heavily into my decision (of course! why would we spend that kind of money on something we didn't completely and utterly covet?!) I also tried to evaluate the decision based on the advantages and disadvantages. The advantage list was much longer. I was fortunate that I met my longarm "soulmate" early on in my search, an Innova. A little more then a year after deciding I bought one of my dealer's demo models. The rest, as we shall say, is history.
