Juki on a frame...
 

My husband just bought me a Juki 2000QI for our 28th wedding anniversary... Next is a frame.. but I'm curious if anyone owns one of these AND use it on a frame? Do you have much quilting room with that size/width throat? I'm hoping I'm wording this correctly :-) and thank you in advance for any advice on this machine.

Congrats, enjoy your new machine!

Thank you, mighty :-) I haven't even turned it on yet and I've had it a week.

i used my juki on a frame for years. after rolling a large quilt, you only have 3.5-4" for quilting depth. i did do a king sized quilt with it and was able to quilt 12" blocks by creatively breaking down the pattern. so it took4 or 5 passes sometimes to quilt that size block. before i moved from MN, i sold my set up and am happy to say that i bought a 17" baily that i'm waiting to arrive. best wishes with your new machine.

I believe that machine has a 9" harp, which is very limited for frame quilting. What happens is that, as you roll up the quilt, less and less depth is available for your quilting pattern. Although many people start with this type of shortarm setup, they very quickly want to graduate to a larger harp machine (a midarm or longarm). This particular Juki is often used for piecing and sit-down (non-frame) quilting, and is considered a shortarm machine.

I used to have my Juki on a frame, but found that I wasn't enjoying the quilting process due to tension issues, thread breakage, and any number of other issues. Turns out that something was out of whack on my machine and when I got it back I never put it back on the frame. If everything is working correctly, it seemed to me to take more time to put the quilt/batting/backing on the frame than the actual quilting.

I have my Juki 2010Q on a Grace GMQ Pro frame. True, it doesn't have a large harp but it is more than adequate for my quilting. And my budget. No way I could justify or afford a larger machine and it sure beats pushing your quilt around under a domestic machine! JMO

Mine is on a handi quilter frame and even tho I only have 9" of throat space, it works for me. If I have a quilt that is too large, I quilt until I can't roll anymore and then take it off and start from the other side.

Smart thinking!

I have a Juki and Babylock Jane both have 9" throats and I can quilt any size quilt I want. I don't have room for a frame and my set up works great for me.

I have a brother pq1500s on a queen size grace start right frame and I love it. To get around the problem of shrinking throat space near the bottom of a quilt , for quilts that are longer than they are wide ( like a twin size ) I just load it in sideways instead of top to bottom. For all over designs this really is not an issue , for more detailed designs I have to think a bit more on the layout but makes it alot easier when I get to the end !

I have a juki tforgot only goes backwards and forwards. It is a real heavy beast on my frame they are a great match .
If I want a fancy stitch use my bernina or janome .

Thank you to everyone for the great input.. Garysgal.... I'll have to look into the handi quilter frame. I haven't heard of that one before... Thank you!

I think for a domestic Juki such as yours you might want to consider a tabletop frame such as Ken Lund's. He has a lot of videos on YouTube, plus there are some QB members have posted photos and information about this type of setup (just put ken lund into search box above). Later on, if you ever decide to upgrade to a midarm or longarm machine, it's best to buy the frame with the machine. Most midarms and longarms work best on the frame for which they were designed, and some machine/frames are not compatible with each other.

For example, I have a midarm Voyager 17 (basically a stretched industrial Singer). This is a heavy machine, and the only frame that can handle its weight well is the Hinterberg stretch frame. If I were to upgrade to an Innova machine, though, I would definitely want an Innova frame; I wouldn't even want to try to use it on a Hinterberg frame. Also, domestic machines with 9" harps do not require the larger carriage needed for midarm and longarm machines.

A Juki TL-2010Q has recently arrived at my doorstep. I have Grace Frame SR2 Queen Size to go with it. I have yet to tell you about my experiences with it on a frame. But oh my word what it is a joy to FMQ on that machine!

From the instruction videos (from Kathy Quilts) one of the tips is actually to a 180 on the quilt if the size of the pick-up roll becomes limiting.

For me, I would never, ever afford a 18"-long arm. So this will have to do!

And on the new SR2 frame you can actually move the frame backwards which means that larger areas can be broken up if needed. Or you can do small size quilting on the frame and saving the larger patterns for when the quilt is off the frame.