WHEN did you decide to buy a LA? after quilting for 1 year.

Like HOW LONG were you involved in making quilts before you decided you NEEDED a LA? i knew from my first quilt that i wanted one.


Did you get tired of paying to have someone else quilt your quilts? i've never allowed any one to do work on my quilts. i like to have control over the entire artistic process. otherwise its not a quilt made by me its a joint project.


Did you want to start up a business to make money at it? i've always sold my art and had a business long before i had my quilting setup.


How long did it actually take to make the purchase? months? years? within 12 months of my learning to quilt.

My DML taught me how to quilt back in the early 80's and I've been addicted since. We always hand quilted everything. In 1985 I was in a quilt shop picking up fabric and the owner was quilting on a LA and I hated it. To me she was just making a comforter. She was just running a pattern from the top to the bottom in rows. So I was not interested in that kind of quilting at all. About 5 years ago my LQS got in a LA, the lady wanted to show it to me, I told her no thanks because I didn't think that was quilting. She started showing me what she could do and I was blown away. I couldn't afford the setup they had but started quilting on my dsm and loved it. Last year I purchased a Mega Quilter with a 9" throat. It didn't take long to figure out it wasn't big enough. Great to learn on. So I've been saving like mad and will be getting a LA this fall. Can't wait.

WOW WOW WOW those are awesome stories!!!! Some sad and some happy.

Thank you so much! $385 for a quilt - OUCH!

I'm glad to read that some knew right from the start that they'd like to long arm quilt. I'm reading that starting on a smaller machine and stair stepping to a larger one is almost like a waste of time and money.

I've been quilting a short time but the desire to get into long arming is almost as strong as piecing...practice, practice, practice. OBTW - room would not be an issue.

Thanks again! Can't wait to hear more stories...

I'm with Ckcowl, I had 3 quilts that had to be quilted asap...took them to be quilted, Fiance' picked them up for me and couldn't believe how much it cost...so him being who he is, did some calculations and said that I needed a longarm if I was going to continue on making quilts...Now I'm not saying that Longarm quilting isn't worth every penny they charge, because believe me now owning a longarm I see the work involved to quilting a quilt...so my hats off to all the longarm owners who do this for a living...especially when you receive a quilt that is less than perfectly square and the quilt owner wants you to make miracles......

I quilted on my home machine for about 5 years before we considered buying a long arm. My husband got on the agenda, and before I knew it we made the purchase! We looked at long arm sewing machines only a month or 2 before making the purchase. I had no previous experience with long arm machines.

I have bad back I cannot sit/stand for long periods of time and decided that I needed something that would hold the weight of the quilt so i was just time to buy one. I love it and cannot wait to get my machine back from the Dr's to get back quilting!

I've been quilting about a year and right now I'm on the fence. I really enjoy FMQ, but dislike wrestling all that fabric. My dealer has a floor model, so I'm trying to decide.

Thank you quilters for all your opinions and stories.

Now I know I'm not thinking 'wrong'! :)

I'll keep saving, keep learning and keep test driving.

But I won't hurry ...

My husband is a quilter too and he pieced a beautiful quilt that he asked the local LA person to finish for him, it was a fabulous job of quilting but totally took away from the quilt design. All you see when you look at the quilt is the quilting and not the piecing. We both feel that the two components should complement each other. We also wanted to be able to fully complete out projects ourselves. We spent about 6 months looking around and checking out machines and finally bought one (HQ Avante) last November. We now do classes for customers to learn how to operate the machine and they can then rent time on her to complete their own projects. We will never make a fortune but we hope we are passing on skills, enthusiasm and opportunity to other quilters for a reasonable cost so that they too can fully complete their projects.

I don't have a longarm, but I did have a midarm, & love it! After wrestling with quilts on my machine, I started bugging DH for a frame, & finally got one over a year ago! We have a small house & it's in the third bedroom, set up in crib size, which is perfect for me, as I haven't done & don't plan to do, many big bed quilts. I love my frame (Grace Mini Pinn) & I would tell anyone wanting a frame, check some of these out, even set up in the crib size, cause you can do big quilts in sections, then just sew them together! Quilting is so much easier on a frame!