Stretching my brother 1500 machine - wow quilting
 

Hi Everyone - I just found out about WOW Quilting in Oklahoma who offers the service of stretching our own machines into 18" throat so we can quilt on a frame up to 18". So I am thinking of having them stretch my Brother 1500 into an 18" machine. Wondering if anyone has worked with LaDonna, Rick or Kati from WOW Quilting and had a machine stretched by them?

Interesting. I would want to see one that was stretched before getting mine done. Will it look ugly? Made do?

Never mind. I found the website and the machine looks great! http://www.wowquilts.com/

My Brother 1500 is such a sweet machine I would be scared it would come back running, performing quite as perfectly. On the other hand, it would be wonderful to have that 18" neck on the machine.

You may want to join the yahoo home quilting (for longarms). There have been a few recent posts from people who've not been happy with their stretched machines.

I agree with Candace. Check the homequiltingsystems group for comments. It seems as if the majority are happy with the end result, but a few have had problems. If you are one of the unhappy ones, there is really no recourse as the machines are not guaranteed (as far as I can tell). All of the risk is yours.

Personally, I would prefer to buy an already-stretched machine so I could try it out and make sure it works before purchasing.

Interesting - I never knew that could be done!

I bought my first "longarm" machine from them when they were based in Nevada in about 2003. I'm not sure what type of a machine it was that they stretched but it had an industrial look. I found their customer service to be excellent. I sold it to a friend when I got my Gammill and she has since sold it to another friend when she got her Gammill. It has retained its value and we both used it for 3 or 4 years and sold it for not much less than we paid for it.

For a few hundred more you can get a Bailey and keep the other machine for piecing. Love my Bailey for quilting and so happy I have my Juki for piecing.

I've thought of doing this to my juki...the best on my grace machine would be a solid 12" reach but better than what I have now.

It's best to stretch an industrial machine, I think, because industrials do many more stitches per minute. For frame quilting, you really want a fast stitching machine so you can move around quickly. Some people stretch vintage Singer domestic machines, but then you are stuck with a slow stitch speed.