Tin Lizzie is reasonably priced and comes with lots of bells & whistles: stitch length regulator, frame, light, shelf for pantos, needle up & down, big bobbins and lots more, just about everything you need. I bought mine used and love it. The new models are cheaper than many other brands.

Look around at your local Joann's & quilt shops for short arm setups and go play with some. Even better if you can attend a large quilt show with vendors that have the mid-arm & true long arms. Some quilt shops let you rent time on their long arm machines. That is really the way to decide if you want to invest money into quilting yourself or whether you just like to piece and pay a longarmer.

Join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homequiltingsystems/ and/or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MQSG/ to just lurk and learn about the different brands & sizes.

You may even decide that you like to sit & quilt rather than frame quilt. There are several options if you go that route also and more seem to be coming out every year.

You can get a new 9" machine with frame for under $2,000. The prices go up with larger machines, metal frames, stitch regulators, robotics, etc.

I started with a cheap Brother. I loved sewing on it and after a year got a Juki so I could try FMQ. I used that for a number of years and this year bought a frame to put it on. I say start with a regular sewing machine and see where you go from there.

I would advise joining the homequiltingsystems group at http://groups.yahoo.com . This is a very active group with lots of information about different machine/frame setups. There is a listing area in their "files" section where people can describe the used systems they have for sale. Also check the websites of machines (such as Gammill, etc.); they often have an area listing used setups for sale. If you are interested in a specific machine, also Google -- e.g., used HQ16 for sale; you can find lots of pricing info that way.

I have a Tin Lizzie longarm and I love it. It is a heavy machine..like Mary stated, it has lots of bells and whistles. I have a Bernina sewing machine with the walking foot and stitch regulator but haven't tried quilting large quilts on it..just bow tucks bags and baby quilts. There is a yahoo group for Tin Lizzie, and I have seen a few on there for sale. As far as any problems with her, I have had none..she works great.
Blessings

Please, please please, please please ...... DO NOT make the mistake that I made. I bought an HQ-16 on impulse a few years back and ended up selling it. First of all, let me just comment that it takes a good deal of practice to become proficient with those machines. If you cannot make that type of time investment, then your money investment will be wasted. Also, the machine set up required alot of space and occupied most of my craft room. What a pain ......
Sewing and quilting is only one of my many passions, since I enjoy rubber stamping, basket weaving, and knitting too. I could not even get to my rubber stamping and basket making stuff because it all had to be packed away to make room for the HQ-16. I finally sold the HQ-16 ...... and, let me tell you that it was not easy to get rid of it. I ended up losing a ton of money because I had to let it go cheap. So, my advice is that you just take your time in making this decision. Long arm machine quilting is not for all of us....... I'm perfectly content quilting on my Bernina QE 440 with stitch regulator. Cheaper machine, takes up no space, and I'm happy with the end product. I will admit that I send out large bed sized quilts to a professional long arm quilter, but it's worth it to me. Doing the math, I'd have to make an awful lot of large bed quilts before the LA quilting fees would even begin to total $20, 000 ...... never gonna happen, since most of my quilts are lap sized or smaller. In the end, if you decide you do want a long arm, then you should definitely do your research and try out as many machines as you can. In retrospect, I think I would have spent a tad more money and gotten a better quality machine than the HQ-16;I did not think it was all that it was cracked up to be.

I would never recommend going from never quilting on a frame to buying any setup that cost more than $2,000 unless you have all ready tested several setups and know exactly what you're getting. Playing for hours on one setup at a local quilt shop or renting time on one. The learning curve is too steep for most people to go from stuffing a quilt through a regular sewing machine to real longarm frame quilting to make a large investment unless you know exactly what is involved. Even if you have practiced on someone else's system alot, did you also spend time loading a quilt, trouble-shooting tension problems, re-threading & maintenance? That is all a large part of frame quilting and can be very frustrating if you're not prepared to deal with it.

That would be with the computer, I do not have. The computer runs about $10,000.

I'm a new quilter and am researching the pros/cons of LA tabletop vs LA frame quilting. I love your input and advice. I have old but good dsm's but throat areas are not meant for quilting.I have a friend who does laq for me when I need it. The tabletop looks like it would fit my needs but not sure since I have not done laq.