Need Longarm advice
 

Hi When at the Syracuse Quilt Show was impressed with the Block Rockit price. It was $4000 for up to Queen size and $5000 for king. With Queen I would have to add ability to pantograph. It is a 15 inch quilting space but i am afraid when you get near the end I would loose a lot of space. They said I could quilt a 12 inch block. I don't have much space so would like the smaller, would I regret it? Please give me any advice or things to think about from your experience. Thanks
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I can't help, as I know nothing about this, but you have come to the right place. Surely someone here knows something about it. Have you googled it? That might be helpful...might be reviews on it somewhere out there.

Dina

I have 2 guild friends who bought this set up. The both are VERY happy with their purchase. They did not get the big one either. I have not seen it but another friend said there is no bar to pin the bottom of the quilt top to. So I guess it has to be floated all the time.

I have an 18" machine. That's the distance from the needle to the edge of the harp. When it's on the frame, without a quilt, the machine can only travel about 15", so you loose about 3" to the frame. On a queen, I can barely quilt the last row of 12" blocks, in a single go. So you would be able to quilt 12" blocks on the first row, but probably not all the blocks on the quilt. You need to ask yourself, however, if you really need to quilt a 12" block all at once. Can you quilt the top half (6") then the bottom? What size blocks do you commonly make?
There are lots of folks out there that have 9 or 11" machines on a frame and do lovely work. Depends if you want to work around something or not.

I understand there's a Yahoo Group for the Block Rockit. They would probably have some good information there.

If there is no leader to pin the backing to - you can buy clips online at places like Erica's that will hold the backing to the rail. A 15" quilt space - near the end - might be off a bit. It all depends on your batting and how wide the roll is when you get near the end. But with a 15" space you should be able to do 11" - 12" blocks with no problem. Hope you tried it out at the quilt show. Also make sure they have training and service available in your area - or online videos of how to use it.