I have the gracie frame with a janome 1600p with the regulator. and i love it.
i cannot do king size quilts and i not even sure a queen size but havent made one
that big yet.

thankyou so much everyone. My grace queen, Janome 1600p and sure stitch is with nice Mr UPS man who is going to deliver it to me tomorrow. I am so excited. I am really looking forward to getting more quilting done. I love piecing but then get cold feet near the end because of the dread of hand quilting which really causes me a lot of pain. I have been sorting out ufos and writing a list of what I need to do to get each one finished. I really appreciate the feedback everyone has given me.

Jan x

Good luck with your frame and machine. Does the sure stitch regulate the stitch lenght no matter how fast or slow you move the machine?

Whatever you do, I recommend you do NOT start out quilting one of your pieced tops. You need to practice, practice, practice first. Find some fabric that has swirls or circles or a design of some kind, and practice following along the designs. This will help you work out tension issues and get the hang of speed, direction, etc. And have fun!!!

Thank you, That is really good advice. I have a couple of panels that people have given me so I am going to have a practice on those first. I managed to get frame set up. Hoping to have a go on machine tomorrow, wind bobins etc and get used to it before I out it on frame and set up sure stitch.

Jan

Congratulation Wardy74! I have a Janome 6500 and believe the 1600p is a strip down version. I really like the 6500 (I have it not on a frame) and have done many quilts on it. Enjoy your quilting set up!

Make sure you can get the stitch regulator for the Janome. Some of the regulators out there aren't compatible. I was going to go with the Grace frame and was thinking of using my Janome 7700 because of the 11" bed and there is no stitch regulator for it because of the digital guts inside, it won't work. Since it didn't make sense without it I decided to scratch that idea and send my quilts out. Good luck.

You can get a stitch regulator for the Janome 1600, I bought mine from Allbrands. Works great.

I probably bought my regulator from Allbrands also. They do need to be bought matched up to frame and machine. I've wanted to change frames, but I'm not sure the regulator will fit on another frame and can't seem to find anyone who will can or will tell me.

grace frame
 

I would consider a differnt machine if I were in yourshoe. I have a pfaff and a grace frame the pfaff and janome are both tin lizze and they a not a good machine they do not stand behind their products. Mine has been in the shop 3/4 of the 2 yrs that I have owned it and back to the factory for 3mos. I was going to try to trade it in on a new one from a different manufacture and they have no trade in value there for I am stuck with this lemon that they will not replace.