Originally Posted by
Barb in Louisiana
...............edited........
Having a dealer close that does repairs and understands your machine is something I consider important. I have an older Nolting that I bought preowned. I need to do something different on my table because the machine hangs up going both ways. The machine itself doesn't give me very many problems and is all mechanical which means my husband can time it and do any maintenance.
A couple of other things....Buy the biggest throat you can afford. Mine is a 24 inch and the maximum pantograph I can do is a 15". You would think I could do up to 24, but you have the needle back from the edge and the quilt rolls up into the throat so you lose that space. I would expect that a 20 inch could maybe do a 12" panto. Check how far across from the front you and your wife can reach. I can't reach all the way across a Gammill quilting frame. That would never work for me. Sometimes I have to do adjusting of fabric and stitching with my hand smoothing the fabric and I have to reach the other side
Having a dealer that could do maintenance on my machine in my area was the #1 reason for purchasing a Gammill. I did not want to have to do the full maintenance. This is a good machine to think about in your search.
My friend had a TinLizzie and upgraded to an Innova.
I have a 26” throat and can do a 17” panto. Also I can “just” reach across my frame. If it was wider, I would not be able to. As Barb said, this is something very important to think about when sharing a machine, especially considering your wife’s height/reach.