I absolutly love to look at all the quilts that are posted on here and all over the internet for that matter. The thing is, I find myself getting so discouraged about making quilts because I do not have a long arm. I hear it roughly a 150 dollars and more to have one longarmed and that is for stippling.I have almost came to the conclusion to find a diffrent hobby and try to sell all of the tops and stash I have accumutated.Am I the only one that feels this way. I guess I am, and have been in a funk feeling like I am wasteing so much money buying nice fabrics to make quilts.

You might want to try and find a tutorial on 'quilt as you go'. If I didn't have a long arm, I would do all my quilts, QAYG. Check it out.

Here's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_OPPpXNLM

I too get discouraged when looking at all the wonderful quilts on here. I tried to FMQ one and messed it up so bad I don't even know if I'll bind it. I have tops made and can't decide how to finish any of them. Thinking about the envelope style for now and maybe tie them. However, I will probably keep at it and hope for a windfall to buy LA.

Just doing stitch-in-the-ditch or straight line quilting can produce wonderful results. Lap-size quilts and smaller are not too difficult to do on a standard sewing machine. and of course, you could always venture into hand-quilting!

I don't have a long arm either...really don't care to have one, I do most of my quilts on my own machine. Either a meander or in the ditch. Don't get down on yourself, it amazes me the comments people make on my quilts and believe me they are far from being contest quality! Do what you can with what you can! Happy quilting!

I don't really like the quilting process - only the piecing. I also have issues with carpal tunnel and arthritis making it difficult and sometimes painful. I've had quilts done by longarmers and for much better prices than $150. I've done SID and straight line quilting on my standard machine on lap size and crib quilts without too much difficulty and they came out well. Some quilt shops now have long arms you can take lessons on and then rent time. You might want to look into that.

I did several queen sized quilts on my domestic before I got my HQ16 sit down. Firstly, it makes a huge, huge difference if you have your machine sitting level with the surrounding table surface. Those silly little clip on things that Bernina supplied me with were useless. If I hadn't had a cabinet, I would have bought a cheap table and cut a hole in it, with a shelf under to sit the machine on.

Once you have the machine level, then the easiest way I found was to just puddle the quilt, so the part I was working on was flat under the needle. Rolling it up in a big sausage didn't work for me at all. It is a bit heavy to work with, pulling and pushing around, but I made it work for me, and its perfectly possible, just a bit tiring. Don't lose heart. Try it first with some smaller projects, I did all my FMQ learning on Project Linus quilts.

I don't have a long arm machine and probably never will and also can't afford to send my tops out to be finished. I hand quilt when I'm in the mood to in the cooler months and either do a quilt-as-you-go or just quilt the best I can on my domestic sewing machine the rest of the year. Don't NOT make quilts just because you can't get a long-armer to finish it up! If you want to start small, you can maybe make a table runner, or a baby or lap size quilt...they will fit under your machine easier than a queen or (gulp!) king size.

I don't have a LA and wouldn't want one. Don't care for the look of machine quilting. I hand quilt, or would tie if I was in a hurry.

What is a HQ16 sit down??