I still think that some people do take to long-arming and fmq'ing easily.

I think it's a bit like having perfect pitch - you have it - or you don't have it.

When I managed a LQS which is a nonprofit I asked for the store to invest in a longarm machine. Since the nonprofit runs mostly on volunteer there were problems. These are the problems that came up at the store. Too many hands at the machine tends to bring thread tension issues because everyone is messing with the tension. So the solution to this was only 2 or 3 trained persons were to run/use the machine. They would quilt for the store samples and also for customers, every 4th quilt could be for them selves or they could get a percentage of the sale.

As word got around the machine was producing a good amount of work which kept the machine worthwhile. Since I left I have heard the now they only have 2 persons that volunteer and their work is still in the learning stage.

All this to say that as long as you have someone willing to be trained and to practice, practice, practice it would be profitable for the group to get a start up 12-18" machine set up.

Some of my queen size quilts takes me 4 to 6 hours is all runs well....and then there are what has been mentioned and then they bring the batting in a bag and you have to measure and maybe even cut, the back is pieced and the ends are not even so you have to trim it, and oh so many more that the list would go on and on. enough said,

I agree with what the others have said. I only want to emphasize that if many people are going to be using the machine this will cause problems and some of them will be major. These machines can be very temperamental and require a level of expertise that only comes with using it over and over. The idea sounds good but then there is reality. MHO

I don't have a long arm -

but the impression I have been getting from my reading -

they seem to get like one-owner pets. They do much better when only one person is using them.

Another option is to have it computerized.
Pros: the quilting can go a little faster, and with a library of designs at your disposal, it can look professional.
Cons: you still have to have people who are trained to load/operate the longarm and the computer and software that run the longarm, and it can add as much as $4-10K to the cost of the machine, depending on what system you purchase.

I have a friend who loves to quilt, but doesn't care to piece tops. She has 2 longarm machines; one is computer-driven, the other FMQ. She'll set the computerized one up and get it going, then move over to the FMQ one and drive it by hand. She's got it down to a science. She has a full-time job outside the home and can quilt as many as 20-30 quilts in a month. Almost all of these go to charity: veteran shelters, the humane society, passage quilts for terminally ill patients at the hospital, Linus quilts, etc. She has the support of a couple of different groups that get together and piece tops for her to quilt.

My friend (lives around the corner) and I bought an APQS Lenni in October which we keep in her loft. The sharing arrangement has worked very well for us both financially and as back up support and trouble shooting for each other. We have leadergrips and can load a Queen sized quilt in about 15 minutes or less including cutting batting. If we are stitching a fairly basic not too dense E2E panto, we can quilt this in 3-4 hours. We float our tops and baste the sides as we go and mark our edges on the front roller with green painter's tape to keep things straight and even. We have quilted more than 100 full sized or larger quilts since October and have an easy to learn and use, low maintenance, few problems machine. We quilt three or four afternoons most weeks and are not one bit sorry that we invested in a longarm.

For and easy, low density pattern, I agree. That time is always spread over several days, though.

Moderate density probably takes 1.5 times that amount of time.

It takes a long time to become expert on a long arm. Mine is computerized quilting; nonetheless, it takes a lot of time to get good at it. It's more than just watching the Long arm move across the quilt...

Even computerized laq takes time to learn and become good. And, though I'm sure some people are willing to walk away from the long arm while the computer runs the pattern, it, like any type of machine, can malfunction. And malfunctions can destroy a quilt, especially when the machine is left to run alone.

Ask me how I know...

Bet it was one that "mattered", too!