[ATTACH=CONFIG]542138[/ATTACH]You can also use rulers made for sitdown machines, but you need a 'ruler foot' on the machine. These are 2 that l use, purchased on line from Unique Design...they post videos on their use.

Best bet is to go to a large show like Houston. Almost all the companies are there and you can go from booth to booth seeing which machine and price suits you best.

Chasing Hawk: I did have a look at the Bailey's website when I was looking for a quilting machine. I finally settled for the Juki TL2010Q. I am still considering a Bailey as an upgrade and I have a question for you. You have the 15 in. Bailey, so 15 inches to the right of the needle. But I notice from the photo that the harp is not very high. Is that a problem when quilting a very large quilt?

My friend has one, I don't remember the name or model and all she can do is FMQ. That is a lot of money to spend on something that has limited ability. I still am quilting on my Bernina 1530. I was lucky to have won so many ribbons with my quilts. Just my opinion.

Not knowing what I was doing at all I purchased a "mid arm" Mine is a Juki Tl 2000. For the first year I used it for all my quilting. I found room in my fairly small sewing room 10' x 10' also was big enough for a folding craft table and kaloa sewing table and my 10' grace quilting frame. The sewing table had to have the back fold out taken out but I don't feel claustrophobic in the least. I bought all of this 2nd hand and did it over a one year period. i would never have been able to continue quilting without the machine quilting frame, just to hard on a 66 year old. Hope that helps

I have the HQ Sweet 16 and love the 16" space between the needle and machine. I like that this model faces me (compared to the regular sewing machine where the motor is to the right. DH added an IKEA pull-up table to one side and two small IKEA cabinets on the right for extra space and extra storage. The only negative is that the height of the table does not align with the height of the machine. That impedes ruler work and the trustitch a little bit. So I ended up buying the overlay. Now Baby Lock Tiara is the same model as the HQ Sweet 16 and they fixed the table-height problem.

Thank you. I have a lot of fun working in that room.

I believe it is 15" from the right of the needle to the machine. I haven't had any issues with large quilts.

First ... go to a large show and try all of the sit-down machines you can get your hands on. I had tried several and I can say that each had a different feel to it, some I liked better than others. Your experience will be similar, but probably with different results. Try everything you expect you will ever do, including changing the bobbin ... some of the bobbins are tricky and difficult to get to, not a simple 'drop' bobbin!!

That said I had narrowed it down to three machines ... Sweet 16, APQS George, and the new Juki TL2200QVP. They were all very nice machines, each having one thing I liked over the others. The things I liked best about the Juki (compared to the others) were: vertical orientation (improved visibility (to me), the lighting is fantastic, longer harp space 18", and higher harp space (10"). It also has a thread cutter, but to be honest ... I don't use it.

In the end, my LQS is a Juki dealer and when the owner whispered an absolutely remarkable price in my ear ... I jumped.

To my knowledge all of the large harp sit-down quilting machines are only free-motion machines. There are no feed dogs.

Below is a picture of my set-up. Please excuse the newspaper ... I'm preparing to spray baste a small wall hanging. I happened to have this large spare table that I put to the left of my machine, and ideally .. the machine needs to be moved to the right (as well as the table) so that it's up against the wall for a right hand "barrier" to keep the quilt from falling off the table on the right hand side. I purchased the standard size table, I did not get any of the additional extensions (because I have this handy table!). But they are certainly available.

Some machines are oriented horizontally like a domestic machine, mine is oriented vertically. With a vertically oriented machine it's best to have a table, or a wall to both the left and right of the machine to prevent the quilt from falling. With the horizontal mounted machines you need to have a table or a wall to the left and the back of the machine. The size of table is dependent on the size you are comfortable working with - controlling - while quilting the largest size quilt you think you will quilt.[ATTACH=CONFIG]542156[/ATTACH]

I know that in quilting with the Baby Lock Tiara that just came into my life, card tables work great for each side... but what I really have to do is modify the table to have extra space in the front. Anybody else find that lack of front space to be a problem when facing the needle?