Me too!

No, you're not the only one.

I quilted one quilt on a machine. My first, a big quilt. I tore off my thumb nail. I know you are supposed to get right back on but I don't want to quilt on a machine now. I have a Gracie EZ frame and am very happy quilting by hand.

I have been doing my quilting on a small brother 5" throat space. It's a workout. My hand quilting is AWFUL! My sewing room is 10'6" x 12' and I found a Juki & frame on Craigslist. The frame will only do up to a queen, but I've never quilted a King size quilt before. It takes up almost 1/2 my room and I really don't know what I'm doing yet, but I'm determined to learn it. And who knows maybe in a couple years I can find a large machine.

I have a Pfaff with an 10 inch throat and I can fmq a king size fairly easily.

I do all my own on an older viking. It's not hard, just takes practice.

I bought an HQ Sweet Sixteen sitdown and love it. I love to quilt and got tired of trying to get all that bulk through the throat of my Bernina.

no your not alone. i use my regular machine it takes a little time but it can be done. i just take my time. good luck. sue

i don't have one either, but i want one. right now, no patience, don't wanna wait. but i'm broke so i'll wait. lol. have you looked at the Wow stretched machines? they are made on a Singer 201. they look nice and sturdy.

i dont have one ( that doesnt mean that im wanting one ) i do all my FMQ on my kenmore sewing machine , but found out it is easier to do it in sections for that small of a quilting area

ohhhhhh glad you love it that is what i have been wanting for a long time

I too have this and just signed up for the class to learn how to use the Avante at my LQS and then I can do big ones there that I would be to large to do on my Pfaff.. I have 8 grandchildren and have vowed to make them all quilts for there wedding.. 1 done 7 to go...

no you are not the only one I don't have a long arm either. I either quilt by hand or stibble on my sewing machine. I would love to have one too. they can be alot of work too though. I prefer a hand quilted quilt though.

I don't have a longarm either. But I do have lots of tops... TBD

No quilting machine here. I feel that I spend a fortune having projects quilted. I am trying to learn FMQ on my regular machine....(not an easy task!) I have done some small projects using SITD and some stitches my machine does. FMQ is so hard for me to do consistently. I think I need many more hours of practice. I have just recently started to experiment with some hand quilting.
Don't feel alone! There are many of us on the board who do not have quilting machines. We can dream, though. lol

I use my regular sewing machine to do all of my quilting and I just made a quilt for my 6'8" grandson. So you know it was big. I didn't say it was easy. LOL

You aren't the only one. I either quilt on my brother or my janome. I must say for that reason I don't enjoy quilting. I would love to be able to afford a LAQ but that's never going to happen

I prefer to quilt by hand. I can't do the beautiful quilts that many of you do, but people I give them to are impressed by all the work and time that went into them. I bought a machine with a frame attached, but have not had the time to really work with. Too busy being retired and travelling.

Hey, I'm a hand quilter by choice. I enjoy the process. Don't have a desire for a long arm; don't want to wrestle with my DSM. I do MQ for those charities that require it but otherwise I'm a handquilter.

Anyone end up buying a long arm since this post? Pls share which one you purchased.

I haven’t bought one, but this thread is timely for me. I’m thinking about buying a sit-down long table mounted long arm. But I’m in a quandary of neurotic indecision. I don’t have enough room for a frame and even a table mounted long arm will require some serious decluttering and rearranging. I’m doing the decluttering (on the theory that it is good thing even if I don’t buy a new machine).

But I can’t decide if I will use the long arm enough to make it a worthwhile purchase. Right now I am quilting on a DSM with a 5.5” throat space. I probably average one quilt per month, from small wall hangings to lap size. I am currently quilting one that is 72” by 72”. I am limited in floor space for basting, which makes me think that no matter the machine, I am rarely going to quilt Queen or King size.

There is a learning curve that I never mastered with it. It's an older model single needle. If I were to buy a new one, I'd want the area around the needle protected some way. Mine does have this huge table that came with it which is nice support if you are doing a huge quilt.

I have to admit that hand quilting is my favorite thing to do. I sometimes combine machine quiting with hand quilting.

I use my Bernina or my old pfaff triptonic.

You are not alone! I either machine quilt using my Elna and a walking foot or I "quilt by check," taking my larger quilts to someone who has a longarm machine. Sometimes I quilt a larger quilt in sections which works OK for me, although I find it a lot of work to put the sections together. Whatever works for you is fine!

Neither do I.
Must admit I have a small fear of fmq on my regular sewing machine so I look for a long arm quilter in my area and pay to have it done.

You don't have to have floor space to baste a large quilt. I use this method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPaI...7sDesignStudio

I also quilt my quilts on a Juki 2200 QVP Mini. It's not a long arm, but a machine with large throat space. So far the largest I've quilted was 60 x 90 on it but I had no problem doing that.

I did several on my regular sewing machine but it was straight line quilting with my walking foor. It did hold the quilt together and I am still using some of them and gave away others. But it was hard to do to manage the bigger quilts. So, I bought a midarm (Viking megaquilter) on a rather flimsy 10 foot aluminum frame. That was better but had serious space limitations by the time I got to the end of the quilt and the frame was sagging at the end. I did about 20 quilts on it and I had paid about 3 grand for the set-up. As the Megaquilter was a good straight stitch machine out of the frame, I kept the machine and trashed the frame. I think I just about broke even on that deal as I did get 20 quilts done on her and I had decided I just did not like getting on the floor to baste the quilts together and then to push them around on my sit down. So when I retired I got an APQS Lucey for about 11,000. So far, I have done 50 quilts on her in about 10 years. Now I have had some serious medical issues during that time that kept me away from quilting but, I have gotten all those quilts done. So I have spent about 220 per quilt so far with my investment in my machine. But I really think I have gotten my money out of the investment as quilting is what i do for fun. I choose to buy a longarm instead of going on a cruise or going to Europe or building a garage. Quilting is what I do for fun, I do not go out to eat often even before the pandemic, I have had friends come for a quilting week several times, I showed some friends how to use my longarm. I don't gamble, I don't drink, I don't smoke. I don't buy designer clothes. Yeah, quilting is an expensive hobby but I have gifted quilts to my whole family that I have made start to finish. Now, I am not a skilled long armer and have sent a few very special ones out for custom quilting that I can not do. Do I regret my decision to get the longarm. Nope, no way, It was a good one for me. However, if you are thinking of doing it, try it before you do as many shops let you rent time on one. My little midarm one let me know, I could longarm and liked it enough to spend the bigger bucks on my bigger 26 inch Lucey on a 12 foot frame.

Thanks for the link to that video. I have done something like that with pin basting in the past, when I had a table like that stored under my bed. One tip: tape a toothpick at the mid point of each side of the table so that you can feel the center of the table even with the sandwich on top.

I have used my quilting table (which opens to about 60” x 40”) to baste in sections using commercial spray baste. However, my preferred spray baste is the homemade one (flour, salt, water, alcohol) but it has to dry for a couple hours after you baste the backing before you can baste the top, so it doesn’t work for any method that requires basting in sections.

Sewingpup: Thank you for sharing your thought process. Whatever I get - DSM with a larger throat or table mounted long arm — is going to be expensive. But I am mostly retired and sew every day, so the upgrade is probably worth it.

"One tip: tape a toothpick at the mid point of each side of the table so that you can feel the center of the table even with the sandwich on top."


SUZSLO, thank you for that toothpick tip. Never thought of that. I have marked my table, but that mark gets hidden with the first layer.

It’s an old tip from Harriet Hargrave.

I also do my own quilting on my Janome machine. It is work but very doable and so satisfying when done and someone asks who quilted it for you and you can say "I did". It does take practice but each quilt gets better - I think anyway.

I try to quilt on Janome using straight stitches, stitch in the ditch, quilt as you go and rulers. I periodically try FMQ but am not happy with the results. The idea of a longarm does not appeal to me very often, but when it does I think about going to a LQS and learning to use theirs which are often set up to rent.