Iceblossom

And listen to Gay -- every embroidery machine owner I know complains not so much about the expense (which there is) of the stabilizer but the amount of waste in addition. And likewise, every long arm owner I know has been surprised by the still considerable amount of physical effort it takes to load and quilt even with the robotics.

If you are using the embroidery features to quilt it might not be so bad, but again, every embroidery machine buyer I know has been amazed, overwhelmed, and usually unprepared for the amount of space everything takes. Not just table top space which is considerable and it is usually easiest just to leave everything correctly assembled. But even more threads than a standard quilter, typically boxes and boxes of them. Cases. Attachments. Hoops. Tools and learning DVDs and download sticks and it goes on and on...

Still, when we want the results we want, we try to find a way to get them. Machines are one of them! I do love me my tools. I did have access to a long arm for a few years and found that yes, I am better moving the machine than moving the quilt and I am able to get the results I want. On the unfortunate side of things, I do not think in terms of the quilting stitch and don't have the gift to elevate with my quilting -- good news is I can buy stencils and pantographs from people who do. And on the truly unfortunate I have a small house and smaller budget, even with an affordable set up (and I have come across some good deals) there is simply no space. And again, you do not take a long arm up and down all the time, it needs to be dedicated space which would be my living room...

So one of things I do is draw designs onto parchment paper and sew/quilt through everything. You can get really great looking results and no one knows if you blew the line or not. I can see it clearly and for me that's the big thing. I have vision issues yes, but my style of scrap quilting makes it really hard to mark a top anyway. I really need to get an actual sewing table with an adjustable lift for the machine so that when I am quilting it is all at table top level, just that physical change will help my results quite a bit.