My 1st quilting machine was purchased on a whim. Luckily I got a great machine and frame to start out with, a Viking MegaQuilter 9" on a GracePro frame 10'. Shortly there after though I realized I wanted more throat space and found I could supposedly get this with an add-on to my robotic system PCQ. Well, that didn't work out as I planned and a friend of mine allowed me to use her stretched Juki machine 18" but a different but similar frame. So I got a Juki machine and had it stretched as she did. Then I moved to another state and went to my 1st quilt show. Some friends of mine with the same robotic system took me to one of the booths, Innova so I played with it and fell in love. I'd also checked with other dealers there and tried their machines. I kept coming back to the Innova. Then I had to make a decision which stitch regulator I wanted so found a couple quilters near me that would allow me to test their machines out with the various stitch regulators. Now I knew which one I wanted, which size machine and frame length. Now to start saving up for it. Well, my mother was living with me at the time and she saw a quilt top I'd made and she wanted it for her bed. I told her that she would have to wait at least a year till I could raise the money to buy the Innova as I wasn't going to try to quilt that big monster quilt on the system I had at the time. 3 weeks later she told me to order what I wanted with extras as she would pay for it. She wanted that quilt that badly I guess. Anyway, I tried out various machines, then decided what extras I wanted on it and also the fact that i could transfer and upgrade my present robotics to the new machine helped make my decision. Not all machines/frames are made the same. We all have likes and dislikes plus how we quilt makes a lot of differences. I was lucky that a quilt show came about the time I even thought about upgrading. I quilt for myself and a few friends occasionally only.