Does anyone have Asante or Crown Jewel (Baby Lock, I guess) 18" machines and how satisfactory are they.

You might want to join the homequiltingsystems group at http://groups.yahoo.com for lots of information. It is a very active group of longarmers. Just as with domestic sewing machines, there seem to be advantages and disadvantages to each machine. If you are considering an 18", you have a lot of options in terms of both machine brand and frame.

I have the Fusion which is a little larger, but I love it!

The Fusion is a HandiQuilter product, and the Jewel is a Babylock product. HQ actually produced the Jewel. HQ has 2 new models, the Fusion and the Avante. Both are awesome machines. The only thing I know about the Babylock is that there is some question regarding the frame, which is not made by HQ. I would recommend finding a Yahoo Group for the Jewel and also joining that. It's very informative to join the Yahoo Groups...you can learn all the details about any machine, good and bad. This is what I did before purchasing mine, and I knew exactly what I was getting, and how much to pay for it :)

Good luck! Now is a great time to buy - especially if you consider used...there are awesome deals out there.

Thanks to those that answsered the question, I'll try some of the groups to see what they say about the machines.