I also am in the same quandry about a longarm. I'm guessing the most important thing is service and lessons. I'm in the Detroit area and there aren't any dealers close to me. Also, I'm not sure that the 18 inch will give me a large enough quilting path once I have most of the quilt rolled up. Any advise?

I replied this to another LA researcher, the international machine quilters show is in Kansas city the 10-16th of May. You can see and play and talk to lots of people for just about every long arm in the industry. I had a ball last year and am going again this year, hubby in tow!

http://www.imqa.org/MQSHome.htm

An 18" throat is more than enough space to roll up a quilt in. I use a 9" and have no trouble rolling it up. The problem comes when trying to quilt blocks but then you just have to figure out a way to break the block down into smaller units that look like one larger unit when finished. With an 18" throat, that would rarely if ever be a problem again.

I think features & price are the most important things when looking for home quilting system. The bigger more industrial machines usually come with some kind of training, camp and/or setup but they are out of my budget for now.

I'm a self-teacher kind of personality anyway so training isn't that important to me. However, if I was buying one of the $10,000+ systems; I'd definitely want a thorough training session because I'd be afraid of breaking something.

Definitely try to attend a larger quilt show and get your hands on as many machines in your price range that you can. Setting your top price will eliminate some machines. Making a list of must have features will eliminate others.

Beverly

The HQ has a fourth rail so that you always have the entire 18 inches to work with according to the sales rep that I talked with at the Dallas show.

interesting! I'll check into that. I was thinking of a Tin Lizzie (26 inch) because there is a dealer about an hour away. Heard any negative stuff of this one?

I hope you find your longarm!