I have been quilting for awhile but I have a terrible time quilting on a regular sewing machine, now I would love to have a long-arm but neither can I afford it or have the room for it. So I would like some suggestions on what I can do to finish my quilt. I have done the block by block method but find that alittle messy and I love all the patterns I see on here so just stitching in the ditch is boring and I can't manuver a large quilt around without messing up my machine, so I need some suggestons!

Save up for an HQ Sweet Sixteen Sit down - it comes in a table 30in x 36in, set level with the table and gives you BAGS of room to put the biggest quilt under it.

Im not sure what you can afford, but keep looking for used setups like Gracie Pro or HQ. They are much cheaper than a long arm. I just sold my Gracie Pro and Janome P16 for $800.

The throat size of the machine will limit what you can do, but there is plenty of room for 4 - 6 inch repeat edge to edge designs as well as meandering and stippling back fills.

Well guess I am not up on these new gadgets, never heard of them but I will look into it. My sewing room is 10x10 and it is also my guest room so it contain a futon right now along with allllllll of my sewing stuff so guess I will check into these and see what I can find. Are they on the internet or do I have to go to a quilt shop or fabric store to find thm? Thanks for all of your help!

My suggestion is craigslist for used equipment.

There are a few machine quilting forums that list used machines

And sometimes I just google the name of the machine I am looking for and see what comes up.

Thats how I found my Long Arm and how I sold my Gracie

THE sweet 16 has a web site; just google it.

what size quilts do you want to quilt.

Is there a large quilt show you can attend? There are usually lots of quilting setups at the large shows. I just attended one where there was an Easy Quilter demo. I was even able to sit down and try it out. Now I'm saving up for one! Here is a link:
http://www.easyquilter.com/

What I found with this setup is that it is much easier to move the machine than to move the quilt. What's unusual about this is that the cost is within reach: $450 to $550 depending on the harp of your machine. This is a good way to start finding out if you want to eventually purchase a long arm machine. I looked at the longarms at the show also, and the least expensive setup I would get if I had the money and the room was the 18" Innova for $8,000!

Is there an LQS in your area that offers rental services to use their longarm? That's what I do, and I love it!

You mentioned "I have done THE block by block method... ". There are at least 4 or 5 different quilt as you go methods that I know of. You might want to do some research to see if there is another QAUG technique that you like. I quilted most of mine in 3' X 3' sections. I found I could manoever the quilt pretty easily with this size chunk and joining the sections was pretty easy.

I have had good luck quilting in sections of about 18-24" wide. Did my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler that way and really enjoyed it. I added borders separately. Have you tried "borders by the roll" - these are pre-printed paper that you stitch on top of.

I quilt on my old Singer 15 that my dh bought me 37 yrs ago for $20. I put a big banquet table by it to support my quilt and it works like a charm! I can do all kinds of free motion. I have no desire to have anything else at this point, guess we all have diffrent ways.

Have you tried handquilting? We are all in such a hurry but it allows you to have a family life or even socialize while quilting. I can handquilt and watch TV or socialize with family and friends and it can be totally portable depending on the size of the project. Supposedly handwork is good for the bloodpressure. I handquilt on monday mornings at our local senior center with a small group of ladies. We spend about 1 1/2 hours actually quilting and manage to produce a handquilted bed size quilt that the center raffles off each year to benefit their programs.
I always take a small handquilting project with me when I travel. It is a great conversation starter on a cruise or while waiting in travel lounges etc. The only thing I machine quilt is for the Linus Project and those are all single bed or smaller sizes.

You can see the HQ sweet sixteen on their site handiquilter.com. It is a sit at system and not to large. I had its big sister the HQ16 midarm and now the HQ Avante that has a 18" reach. The sit down would be neat for you. Less $$ too.

Can't give you the topic, search the Board for a quilter who showed how she quilts from the front of the machine (turns the machine with the throat to the back). I have barely progressed to stitch-in-the-ditch so am not much help.