Ok so I've decided I need a longarm because as old age sets in, arthritis in my shoulder is making it harder and harder to quilt. I started to look at the HQ18, the Tin Lizzie and now the Babylock and am starting to get really confused. Add to that the possibility of just getting the frame and using my Bernina to quilt. That sounds ok, but is 6 inches enough to do what I want to do. I really would appreciate help in telling the various longarms apart. Also does anyone have just a frame and use their sewing machine? Yes, I also am cringing at spending allot of money too. Help please!

You also might check out the Bailey machine, they have a good reputation from what I understand.

Bailey....I've never heard of them. Have they been around long?

I started with my brother 1500, 6 inches. After just a few quilts it sat there for almost 2 years not being used. I now have the HQ 16 and would love to upgrade to the Avente 18 inch. In just over 2 years I will have quilted 200 quilts/items on it and LOVE it!

I think they've been around quite a while, if you Goggle Bailey quilting machine, you can find out more about them. I think at least a couple members of the board have one. It's what I'm thinking about getting when I get the room and the money.

go to the next, biggest show you can get to. all the machines are there for your quilting pleasure. test drive every one of them. see what you like and don't like. decide how much you want to spend. some of the prices may astound you. if you want to make large quilts, queen to king, imo you need something bigger than a 6" throat. it's just frustrating otherwise. not to mention the strain on your shoulders and arms. if you use a 6"er on a frame, your work area becomes very small as you roll up your finished work under the throat of your machine, because the roll prevents the machine from going forward enough to make any headway.
i don't know if i explained it right. i had the brother 1600s, bigger than a regular home sewer, and i ended up selling it. it drove me nuts because it was so hard to make big quilts. after all, that was why i got it. i ended up only making 2 quilts, injuring myself and staying as far away from it as possible until i sold it. now i have an 18"er, the tin lizzie. very basic by choice and price., but works just fine. i tried everything, but everything. and then i felt i could make my decision and the best deal.

Be sure to join the homequiltingsystems group at http://groups.yahoo.com . There is a lot of comparison information in the files there, plus you can read through old posts and ask questions. It's a very active list with quilters who have all kinds of different setups. From reading posts there now and then, you can be pretty sure that a domestic machine will get frustrating pretty quickly because of the small area available for quilting once you start rolling the quilt. Quite a few people like the HQ16.

there is a longarm show coming up in may in Mo. where i am when you google a longarm machine look at the shows they will be at. and the site http://groups.yahoo.com/ is good too. i am also looking for a longarm i want the 26 in then i will never run out of room and i wont ever need to upgrade but im waiting for may for the show to decide

i have a janomie and i only get 5 in thats nuts
mema

I have a Juki 9". As the quilt is being done it's rolled onto the take up roller, which is inside the throat of the machine, so the quilting area gets smaller. By the end of a queen quilt I have only a 5" wide area to quilt. That's not enough. I really don't think you'd be happy using your regular machine on a frame unless you were doing very small quilts.
I'm looking for an 18" machine. One I'm considering is the ABM Innova. You might want to check it out.

I bought the 26" Innova in December. I love it, and the price is less than some others. To me, the price difference between 18" and 26" was not that great, and I am using the full 26".

However, a longarm is a big investment in money and in space. If you can't make that investment yet, try quilting in sections. I used that method on quite a few large quilts and felt that it was a good alternative to wrestling with a large quilt in a small machine throat. The book Machine Quilting in Sections by Marti Michell explains this very thoroughly. (No, this is not quite the same as quilt-as-you-go.)

http://www.amazon.com/Michell-Machin...6169828&sr=8-1