IMO = In My Opinion IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

The Bailey Home Quilter is also available in 17" and works beautifully for doing your own quilts and few of your friends. Super easy to operate. No bells and whistles but gets the job done. Stitch regulator is available and there are add on robotics that can be added if you want to go that route. Also the price is very very right! Check out the website.

Thank you, I will!

I have a Tin Lizzie 18LS that I bought new and have been using since January of 2011. I, like you, was buying my first machine and knew I wanted an 18" throat, but yet did not want to spend a lot of money, not knowing how much I would use it and not knowing how much skill I would have at doing the freehand quilting. I bought it for my own little hobby. I did not want to buy a high $ machine for this. So I bought th Tin Lizzie, which was affordable for me, and have had good luck with it. I have had to get an encoder replaced but otherwise it has been a good machine. It has a stitch regulator, and a 12' table so I can do large quilts. I have started quilting for customers and am just going to be listing my machine for sale very soon as I am moving up to a macine with a longer throat now. I am located in MN and if you live anywhere near here, and want to come and look at my machine, I can give you a demo and you can play with it. When I was looking for my first quilting machine a year ago, I only wnated to spend around 4or $5000. Well, it is hard to find a used 18" quilting machine for that unless they are really old or don't have a stitch regulator. Then I found the new Tin Lizzie with special pricing so I was able to pursue that. Now, because I have been fortunate to be skilled enoughat the freestyle quilting, and have started quilting for customers, I am at the point where I want to move on to a larger throat and am going to be selling my Tin Lizzie. If you are interested, or have any questions about the Tin Lizzie, please PM me.

I don't know where in OK you are from, but if you are in southern OK, I would be happy for you to drop by and play with my Voyager 17. They are reasonably priced. PM me if you are interested. I'm not selling mine, but because Nolting bought out Hinterberg, there are some used ones on the market.

Be sure to look at used machines too. Longarmuniversity.com and houseofhanson.com both have classifieds for used longarms. The machines are workhorses and last practically forever. Get your new baby a spa treatment from a tech and you'll be good to go for half the price!
The only machines I don't see on there are the innovas. Does that tell us something? Good luck!

I took delivery of a HandiQuilter Fusion with ProStitcher in June-- it makes gorgeous quilts! (Okay, _*I*_ make gorgeous quilts now!)

I was supposed to have more training than I've had but I bought the four DVDs that HQ offers and learned it on my own in very little time.

I love it and am SOOOOO glad I bought it!! (They are much more reasonably priced for us "every day" people who still work at a day job and aren't full time professional quilters-- YET!)

Just my two yen,
Marcia