I'm curious how quilters have felt when changing from FMQ on a domestic sewing machine with a larger throat (Janome 7700, Bernina 820/830) to a long arm machine. Was there a significant difference in the time investment? Was your end product more impressive, such as did it lay more straight, more flat? Did you feel you were able to produce more impressive patterns in your quilting? Thanks.

I didn't change machines but I did put my machine on a frame. I found there was a learning curve but I am getting the hang of it. I think what I like the best and it does save time is the fact I don't have to pin or baste the quilt layers together, love that. I just have to attach to the frame.

I got an HQ 16 several months ago. I think this is more of a mid-arm than long arm machine. I can't begin to tell you how much easier it is to quilt - trying to manuever all that fabric around with my domestic machine was driving me nuts! It was very hard for me to follow any pattern - I either stitched in the ditch or did free motion. I'm now starting to use patterns. I'm also getting UFOs quilted - I was putting them on a shelf because I wasn't ready for the struggle of quilting them. For me it was well worth the investment.

Well, I don't know about more impressive results :-) but it sure is a whole lot easier for me. The motion is more natural, as you are moving the pencil rather than holding the pencil stationary and moving the paper, if that makes sense.
It's much quicker to load a quilt on the frame compared with preparing the quilt sandwich. I also think it's easier to get the backing loaded smoothly.
In general I find the process quicker, especially when doing utility quilting such as loops or a meander.

I have better results and am able to complete the quilting much faster. I never really got the hang of free motion quilting on my Janome 6500 so I did mostly SID and used my decorative stitches.