Sit down machines
 

I see a lot on this board about long arm machines, but I don't have the space nor do I do enough large quilts to justify the cost. I am interested in one of the sit down type of quilting machines but know very little about them. I had a chance to demo Bernina's new one, but didn't ask the right questions, like what else will it do besides FMQ'ing. I've heard of back extensions, and side extensions for the tables they sit on. What are the pros and cons of that?
If there is already a recent thread on this, I apologize and will read that instead of wasting everyone's time here.
Thanks!

You can go to the "search" box in the upper righthand corner of the screen to look for other threads on this topic.

I'm not an expert on the sitdowns, but I know a lot of people like the Sweet Sixteen. The APQS George is another, and there are a couple more that I am not remembering at the moment. I'm pretty sure the Sweet Sixteen and George are both dedicated FMQ machines; there are no feed dogs, so no straight stitching or decorative stitching. What Bernina did you look at?

Instead of extension tables, I recommend looking at a suspension system. Here is a link to a commercial one, although some quilters have made their own out of PVC: http://www.jennoop.com/suspenders.html

I am always amazed at the creativity of people! Neat idea!

I keep a card table to the left of my HQ Sweet Sixteen, to hold the bulk of the quilt (I turn my quilt so I'm always quilting in the lower right quadrant to minimize the weight I have to push around). I also use the jennoop suspenders. I haven't heard of back extensions; I guess that would be an option if your machine was side-facing like a DSM. As Prism99 pointed out, there are no feed dogs, so if you want to do straight line stitching, you must learn to use a ruler. I really enjoy using my sit down machine. There's a yahoo group called 'HQ 16 Handi-Quilter Sit-Down Table Model' for users of the Sweet 16 (and the other brands that are basically the same), where you can find tons of information.

Here is mine, it is a Bailey Pro 15. I had it on a frame but couldn't stand for really long lengths of time. So my husband built a large table for it to sit in. It works perfectly for me and the table size insures I can work a large quilt with ease.

The Bailey is a basic workhorse of a machine. Made in the U.S. by a man in New York state.
His customer service is second to no one. He helped me when I first received my machine and answered all my questions. He now offers sit down models too.

http://www.baileyssewingcenter.com/index.html

I have a Sweet Sixteen sitdown and have a 2'x4' folding table set up on each side of my machine table. I've done several queen/king quilts with it and the side tables do a great job of holding all of the quilt. I love my machine when it cooperates ;-) but from everything I've read about quilting machines, their temperament goes with the territory and every brand has its quirks more or less. There is a great forum on the Handi Quilter website where there are often used machines advertised for sale by owner and worth checking out if you're in the market and also to get an idea of some of the issues that may arise in using a quilting machine. Good luck with your investigation!

Chasing Hawk...that is an awesome and beautiful set up....
kirsten

"...what else will it do besides FMQ'ing?" The sit down machines don't have feed dogs, so they are dedicated quilting machines.

neat setup.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]542137[/ATTACH]This is my Bailey 15"while quilting a king sized quilt (108" sq.) l have it set into a counter...when l'm doing a quilt this large, l use a folding craft table to my left to hold the quilt off the floor.