After Market Stitch Regulators or Built In?
 

Can anyone tell me about after market stitch regulators? Which machines work with them and are they as good as the machines that have them built in? There are several machines that I am interested in "test driving" such as the Viking Sapphire 875Q, Janome 770QCP, Baby Lock Symphony, Bernina 7 series when it comes out because the harp space on the 550QE is so small and the 8 series is too expensive. Thanks for your help.

Are you talking about quilting on a frame? I am not aware of any stitch regulators other than the BSR that work without a frame. (But I may be behind the times.) The BSR is not "built in" - it's an attachment, and you can quilt without it.

Yes, it's a little frame. I saw them online, Fabric Movers and Fab U Motion. I have seen the BSR, I tried it when it first came out years ago and thought it was amazing. I have tried to learn to do FMQ on my Elna 6003 and I don't think that I will ever master FMQ on that machine (Operator Impatience)

I have the Janome 7700 and there is no stitch regulator for it that I am aware of. However, one of the reasons I got it was for its wonderful FMQing. I upgraded from a Janome 6600, which I also was able to FMQ on but only after a lot of fiddling. The 7700 has auto tension and a wonderful foot that rests just on the quilt sandwich. I've not had to make any adjustments to tension, but if you should need to you can override the auto tension.

I think you do need a certain amount of patience and a significant number of practice hours on any domestic machine to master FMQ, and I don't think you'll find any way around that.

Have you thought of getting a sit down Sweet 16?

I have the Baby Lock Espire (which is now the Symphony) and it doesn't have a stitch regulator either. While I LOVELOVELOVE my machine, it is not optimal for quilting. Even though the harp is larger, I still find it challenging to maneuver the larger quilts under the needle. (I am actually researching mid-arms at the moment because of this issue)

If you buy a strait stitch machine and mount it on a longarm table you can get a stitch regulator for $500.
I have the Baby Lock Jane which is the same machine as the Brother 1500. I added the stitch regulator and it works very well on my long arm table.
Other wise the only stitch regulator is on the Bernina.
I have seen the Fabric Mover type attachment that has the opening that you stitch inside. It came out years ago. But it is not very well liked and the price came down. But havnt heard much about it anymore.