so many considerations go into that question. How many quilts per year do you do? obviously the more you piece, the more cost sense it makes to buy a larger machine and quilt your own. Where do you live? some regions machine quilting is more costly. Here in the heart of the midwest simple panto or easy, less dense edge-to-edge start at 1 1/2 cents per sq inch and go up. Get ruler work, multiple thread colors, or involved designs that require more marking start at 2 1/2cents and go up, and very dense, microfills would either be added on to that custom price at a flat rate per hour or sends up the price per square inch. As far as finding a long arm quilter, check with your guild(mostly likely there will be some that quilt for others) or check with local quilt shops--some have a quilter on staff and others will have business cards for some. If checking at a shop, ask if any of their sample quilts have been done by those quilters. Good luck~