I had a midarm set-up at first and then I replaced it with a demo APQS Lucey on a 12 foot frame.....I have had it about 8 years....and I have done 53 quilts on it....when I bought it....they said I would have paid for it after about 60 quilts....so I have just about paid for it by doing my own quilting....advantages of having your own machine....no waiting for quilt to get down outside your control I do mainly overall designs as I make mainly bed quilts....I have done a bit of ruler work but don't really like doing it. I don't have a computer...but do have a stitch regulator and it is really easy to move and the frame is easy to use and the neck is 26 inches so I have lots of room...usually end up advance the quilt only 4 times maybe five if it is a really big one. We have a local quilt shop were you can rent time after taking a class. It is 30 dollars per hour and if you don't finish in your time slot...you need to take the quilt off and load it again later. I find it takes me about 3-4 hours to do a over-all pattern so it would cost me $90 to $120 plus I don't know what the charge is for the time it takes you to load and unload the quilt...that would add another hour or so depending....I recently paid to have a 72 by 72 quilt custom quilted and it would have been $800 but she gave me a discount because of prior business