Forgot to say... I started quilting with an old Bernina too, with a tiny harp space: My Bernina 830 from 1970. Then I got my Juki 2010Q, basically the same machine as your 'mini', and did my fmq on that machine for years. I learned on it! So you and I have similar machine histories.
Last Spring I bought the Juki 2200 sit down longarm and it was just like fmqing on the 2010Q... only bigger with more room. So if you want to go bigger, you might consider one. It has the auto thread cutter just like the smaller machines.