Originally Posted by cookiej36
Originally Posted by watson's mom
Pfaff also makes an 18" quilter now. I have tried it several times and will soon have one of my own. It is smooth and easy to use.
I recently (October 2009) purchased a Pfaff 18.8 quilter with the Inspira frame. I love the machine and can quilt a throw (70x70) in about 2 hours, once it's loaded onto the frame.
I spent about $7000 on my set up and that did not include the QBOT, something I felt I could add at a later date. I did spend about $350 extra for the 3 foot extensions which enabled me to set the frame up at 8 ft. as I did not have the space for the full 10ft. With the 8ft set-up, I can quilt up to approx 80 inches. I figure if I ever have anything larger than that, I can send it to my longarmer!
After attending a quilt show this weekend and playing around with some of the different machines and frames there, I found that my machine moved more freely than many set-up on a wooden frame. The Inspira frame is aluminum. I didn't look at wooden frames prior to purchasing.
My advise to you is to find a dealer who provides support for the machine through the learning curve!
the tin lizzie comes with the stitch reg and the poles can be up to 140", since you supply the poles from home depot. because you use your own poles, you don't pay shipping on them. it has a wood frame made my Grace (? it's downstairs.) there is no extra cost for anything, unless i want to computerize it in the future. it's about $7000. it's very smooth and i only ever do 94-98" quilts. (i once did a twin as a gift)the tech help is phone help here in nj (because the have only two dealers far from me) but very good. the wood frame has been very easy to retrofit to my own specs. for example, i moved the laser light to a location i like better and my dh added an outrigger to hold very large spools of thread.