Where do you park your Long-arm machine?
 

The time has finally come to get one of these lovelies. However, I'm wondering where its going to live. I know room is required. That being said where is your long arm machine. Just curious. :)

Mine is in the finished basement.

I have a family room and a living room. Mine lives in my living room.

When considering where to put your longarm, get actual measurements of the space you will be needing (not just the frame) from your dealer and/or friends who have the same machine, and make a masking tape outline with those measurements in your space. This will help you visualize it.

I have a family room in my basement that is my sewing room, and off that room was a workshop that I gutted so my long arm is in there with the perfect amount of room. I would not have bought my home if it didn’t have room for my baby. I have a HQ Fusion on a 12ft Gallery frame.

Mine is in the basement. The only other place it could fit would have been the living room. Hubby refused to sacrifice the living room. Also, before you buy, take measurements on any parts that can't be broken down into smaller parts, like the table across the back. Make a cardboard mock up of it and see if you can get it into the space you want it without bending the cardboard. Those tables and rods don't bend around corners. And your ceiling height may not be enough to stand them on end to get them around a corner. Even though I did all that, the seller forgot to tell me there were welded metal table bracket supports underneath the table, making the table a certain thickness. Because I didn't take the thickness into account, the real thing couldn't get into the basement the way the cardboard mock up did, and it laid out in the back yard overnight :shock: while we figured out a new way to get it inside (we had to remove a window in the basement)!

I have a small bedroom upstairs that I sacrificed for my LA, unfortunately the largest size table I could fit in the room is a 10ft. We had to bring the rollers in through the window. The LA pretty much takes up the entire room so I use my guest bedroom as my sewing room for my cutting table, domestic machine in it's own table and my ironing board.
The domestic gets recessed down into its table when I have guests.

Mine is too.

When I first bought it, I had a living room and family room downstairs and a huge loft upstairs. The loft would have been the perfect place for the longarm, but that is where DH and I spent our evenings watching TV, so the longarm went into the downstairs family room instead. The rest of my quilting was in a huge upstairs bedroom. When I moved to this house, I put the longarm and most of the rest of the quilting in a bonus room that sits above the garage. It's more convenient having everything in one place. Well almost everything - I have machines scattered all around the house and sometimes do some sewing downstairs.

Mine is in the living room, which was sitting empty in this house. We never used it and as I was vacuuming the room one day it occurred to me I could use it for my sewing space instead of always putting things away.... that was about 12 years ago, and now the room is filled with sewing stuff including my longarm...

Mine took over the dining room.

I park mine in the garage, of course - where everything else sewable and crafty is housed.

We built a room on the back of our house, 65'x20', it was to be my mom's room but she change her mind so I now have a space for my LA and our parrot.

At a friend's house!

You really didn't need the rest of that now, did you? And it's good to see someone with their priorities straight, lol.

Oh this is fun to read. Thanks for sharing. I'll let you know where mine will be.

Along with everything (almost) else, in it's own 18 X 30 building.

Mine is front and center in the living room.

How exciting for you Rhonda...I had to wait two years or more for mine. We dormered out over our two car garage and built a nice sunny room for my sewing studio. [ATTACH=CONFIG]611149[/ATTACH]

Mine is in 1/2 of the basement, the colder side. Wished I'd thought ahead of time of having the basement floor leveled when I'd 1st bought this old house. Didn't realize just how unleve it was till we opened up another doorway on the opposite end. Nearly 3 inches difference plus on the other end it was so rocky (unlevel) like they just dumped some concrete on the floor. This house was built in 1900 and I'm thinking there had been an addition put in some time so instead of smoothing out the floor on the addtion they just dumped the concrete to fill it in. Have the frame at the highest point on the levelers plus added a couple of those sliders under it to raise it up. Its just barely level. And yes, its too late to level the floor now with all that's in that room now. The other side is carpeted with indoor/outdoor carpet, cutting table, PC armoire that takes 3 men to move, etc. Next life I'll know what to do.

Mine is out on the three season sun porch. The sun porch can be used all year round but was an add on to the house and isn't insulated correctly so it does get cold out there in the winter. In the winter I bring just my machine inside. I'd love to have a super large room where all my sewing items could be kept and I could set up all 3 sewing machine and have my quilting machine in one spot. I'd be in quilters heaven then!

Mine is in the family room with the TV. The family room was the only room in the house with a long enough wall. We built a design wall and a rod for hanging quilts behind it. I have the HandiQuilter Avante'.

Tin Lizzie is in my finished garage -- clean floor, book cases and lots of shelves. It works!

Mine is in half of the Machine Shed.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psvh4z8qis.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pstrsgjoae.jpg

This is the other half - and why we call it the "machine shed"

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psrm0awrbx.jpg

Thank you so much for sharing. Love your answers!

Macybaby, this such a cool area! I love your "machine shed". I haven't seen so many machines in one shed before!

Parked???? I had to laugh out loud. The head is parked behind the two recliners in the living room and the frame is in the garage.

I did have a huge two bedroom apartment that was all set up. But the banker thought better of the space and suggested I rent that out for a while. My hip was talking to me while doing it, so the next step is to decide where to move it, or to sell it, or upgrade to a computer package or what. My garage is ready for a make-over. I don't trust the water in the basement.

Mine is in the remodeled garage that we turned into the boy's playroom and when they all were moved out the space turned into my sewing room. It is well lit as we put in fixed door windows where the double garage doors were. It is a great space and was very easy to get the big machine moved into.

Most of my quilting friends included the cost of backyard quilting sheds in the cost of their LA set up. All they do is quilting in there and have the sewing room in the house. It was cheaper then adding a room to the house or remodeling.

Mine is in what used to be the formal living room, then exercise room, then paint studio where I taught painting and now it is the longarm room. I just bought a computerized A1 and I am so excited. Selling my old Tinn Lizzie.

I love your old machines. And I have the same oval little featherweight table...and a number of old sewing machines. :)

When I got my machine 5 years ago I seriously considered setting it up in my living room. But is is in a large room in my basement that is well light.

If wishes were fishes, I will own a piece of property in a few years on which I will build both a new home and a separate studio. The studio will have a wall of windows (walk in closets for fabric storage out of the direct sun), my sewing machines will be set up at one end, the long arm in front of the windows. There will be peekaboo glimpses of the ocean.

Plan b is to build a home with a studio inside. The plans I am looking at have a 15x12 Flex Room that would have a water view. https://tamlintimberframehomes.com/w...tle-Page-1.pdf

I would need more room for storage. Which is why I want to build the house and a separate studio. The company does custom design but also has a simple 600 s/f cottage that would make a wonderful studio and eventual rental.

The same company has a much larger home plan that has a huge loft that would work for a studio too. But that house is 2500 s/f, much too large for my needs.

Most likely though I will continue to live where I am. If would love to renovate the basement with a goal of one day putting in a basement suite to generate some income. If I do that I will make sure I add lots of storage that I can use for my fabric.

I've considered moving all my sewing out to the Machine Shed - but it does not have a bathroom. DH and I were just talking about downsizing when we retire, and I told him that a sewing studio that I can fit the LA and my working machines in is a must. I'll probably have to rehome most of my machine collection, but I've got several years before that is an issue.

At one point I had my LA set up in what was the dining room. The biggest problem was that it's open to the kitchen and no way to close that off, so I could not keep the cats out. And they thought it made a really good hammock! I'm OK with having to share my sewing room with the cats, but did not like that. I love knowing that if I have a quilt on the LA - it's not going to get messed with by anyone but me.

In my dreams.... :D I will have a she-shed one day though, and then all bets are off.

This is a very interesting conversation. Mine is in the family room beside the pool table. Since the boys are grown up they don't use the pool table very often. The can't believe I have turned the family room into a long arm space since I already took one of their bedrooms for a sewing room. The bedroom with the attached bathroom. I put my long arm on wheels so when we are using the family room space, I can push the long arm over the the far side of the room so my long arm doesn't get interferred with, making plenty of room for everyone to use the pool table.

Mine is in an unfinished basement. It's a nice walkout basement with windows and sliding doors. I had my husband paint the cinder block to brighten up the walls. I also hung up work lights from the ceiling joists. When we built the house we had planned to finish the basement, but with just the 2 of us we dont need the extra living space. I only make about 12 quilts per year so it works for me. Although i drool over the fancy upstairs rooms I see on this site. Our Great room has 22 foot tall ceiling and is full of windows. I fantasize about turning the basement into the living room and moving the longarm upstairs.

Mine is in the dungeon. As others have said, you need to make sure if the frame will fit in the space you plan for. My machine would not “turn” at the bottom of the stairs and had to be dismantled and put through the window. The window is 2’. Just made it! This is my clearance. Longarm is pushed up against opposite wall. :-)

We are renters here in Phoenix. Mine is in the combination living and dining area. Everything sewing related is in this room. Our second bedroom is a pretty good size and that is our den/TV room. DH can close the door and watch his TV shows.

In our previous house it had to live in the living room. My sewing room was 8 x 8 and held everything else. This house is sooooooooooooo much better.

I converted our basement family room into a sewing room - that's where mine is.

My husband and I decided we were going to build on my Studio to our 3-truck garage. We built a 16' x 24' room. My parents blessed me with the money to buy my new APQS Lucey. Someday we'll be in a home big enough for my longarm and all things sewing-related. But, for now, we decided my life is going on right now, not "someday". I couldn't be happier with my amazing family, my Studio, or my longarm!! God is so good.

We had to go outside the house!
 

I have a longarm in a garage/shop building where we remodeled a room for it.