Long arm for small space
 

I'd like to see one of these in action.

HQ Simply Sixteen and Little Foot frame

http://www.handiquilter.com/hq_simply_sixteen/

The frame sound like it's kind of small..."a 5' free-standing frame). That's only 60" wide.........it might be harder to quilt wider quilts...unless they show an easy way to do it. I'd check it out for sure to see if it meets what you will need to quilt as far as quilt sizes. The sit-down version might be a better solution if you are restricted in space. (I'm not coordinated enough to use a sit-down one.......I have to move the machine versus moving the fabric--but some folks really can do great work with the sit-down).

Like everyone advises.....test it out, test it out, test it out at the store.

NoraB, I have the sit down Sweet Sixteen and I love it. This is a different kind of quilting frame. I'm just curious to see how it works since they say you can quilt any size.

My first long arm had the option of a 5' frame. The frame size was determined by the length of the poles. The machine carriage took up over 6" on either side, so the actual quilting area would have been less than 4'. You need to find out how they determined the dimensions as you may have less than 5' of actual quilting space. Also, looking at the photos, there are no rollers, so the quilt can just float on either side of the quilting area allowing any size to be quilted. With no poles to wrap the backing, batting & top, I'm not sure if you need to sandwich the quilt first, which is a big plus for most long arms. I would make sure you find a video on how the quilt is loaded.

I was hoping somebody would start a thread on this new setup! It's very intriguing to me. The ads say they will be shipping mid-December. I hope somebody on the Board gets a chance to see one in action and reports back to us!

I live in a small condo and don't have space for a longarm (or the $$ either, but that's a totally different issue!). The 5' size of this frame would probably work for me, though. It appears that the MSRP on this new frame is almost exactly the same as the HandiQuilter Sweet 16 sit-down model so the decision would be - do you want to move the machine or move the fabric?

By the way, Brother is coming out with something very similar, which is called the "Dream Fabric Frame", but I think you need to have one of their top-of-the-line machines (like the Brother Dream Creator) to use it. Here's a YouTube video about it. I think it's coming out in 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVXbm6M684Q

Looks neat! Though the one thing I love most about using a full frame is not having to sandwich and baste the quilt first, and this would still require that.

Now that HQ went to the quick attach feet and is coming out with different feet for different purposes, you can have even more fun playing around with it.

I forgot to mention that I did giggle a little bit when I noticed that the quilt they have on the frame in their advertising photos is totally finished, binding and all....guess they didn't have an unfinished quilt laying around... they should have asked one of us, we have plenty! LOL :)

There are some great YouTube videos out about this set-up, how to quilt large quilts, pantographs, etc. I've heard that many users find this clamping system easier than the rolling way. The other great point is that this machine fits onto their larger frame.