I'm a very new quilter and was very anxious about quilting my first quilt. We have a LQS that rents long arm machines. You have to take a class and they do hold your hand through the process. $15/hour to use the machine. It took me 3.5 hours for the class and the quilting (lap size quilt). I was very pleased with the results and now I can say I did everything myself from cutting, piecing, and quilting my very first quilt.