bibiche

Hello. I'm having a hard time choosing between the Little Gracie II frame and the GMQ Pro frame. Both are used. I know that the Little Gracie can't do king sized quilts and the GMQ Pro can, but other that that what are the real differences between them? Is there a much bigger quilting area on the GMQ Pro? Ugh. This choosing machines and frames thing is absolutely exhausting me. At this point, I wonder if once the decision making process is over if I will have any energy left to even use them! lol

Quilt Mom

Sorry. I have nothing to add to the discussion, except that I am green with envy! :lol:

Hope you enjoy whatever choice you make!

rivka

I have a Little Gracie II. Honestly, looking at the two of them on Grace's site, there's very little that is different. The GMQ Pro will let you do king sized quilts, and has the height adjustable legs, but other than that, it looks exactly like what I have. If the LG II is significantly cheaper and you don't plan to do king-sized quilts, then I'd go with that, myself.

If the used frame that you end up buying does not have the carriage upgrade (it's metal, versus the wooden carriage that is the default for both frames), then I would highly advise getting it. It's a much smoother ride.

bibiche

Thanks for your opinion. I wish there were a place that I could go to to try them both out but there isn't. There is a significant price difference, but that is because there is a quilter's cruise control with the GMQ Pro frame. Which of course I don't know if I need or not... And I have read that the carriage upgrade makes a big difference. If the frames are pretty similar, maybe it would be better to go with the less expensive and upgrade the carriage. But then I would have to buy a new Juki instead of a used, less expensive Juki.... ARGH!!!

rivka

Well, the quilter's cruise control certainly adds another variable. Personally, I found it impossible to quilt without some sort of stitch regulator -- at the very least, it shortens the amount of time it takes to get decent with your machine setup. Without it, you're much more likely to have stitches of different lengths; moving at a perfectly uniform speed and not slowing down or speeding up while going around curves is very difficult! I know some people can do it, but I'm not one of them ;)

You don't need to upgrade the carriage immediately -- the frame will work fine without it, so don't stress too much about that; it's just one of those things that is nice to do once you've worked with the frame for a bit.

If one of the used setups that you're thinking of buying comes with frame, sewing machine, AND stitch regulator, personally I'd go with that one. You'll be able to start out immediately with that setup, and you'll probably have much less initial frustration.