I am a longarmer specializing in custom quilting---very few pantographs. As such, I can pretty much assure you that it is NOT the machine. Burnout is a huge factor, and being the perfectionist that I am, when I reach a point where I dread starting another quilt, it's TIME OUT. My customers are very understanding when I tell them they'll have to wait a while. For example, last year this time, I was quilting right up to the middle of December because customers wanted quilts for Christmas presents. No more. This year, I stopped taking quilts at the end of September, finished up the backlog at the end of October, and took a break. No more customer quilts until middle of January. I see no point in sacrificing quality.