My hubby did the same thing to me and I chose the new Handi-Quilter Avanti 18. I liked the size and the simplicity of using it and it's beauty. The Handi-Quilter website has lots of information plus QNN TV is having a series of longarm lessons. You Tube also has alot of video's using different longarms. Another point was I liked the how quiet the Avante 18 is. I found some of the others pretty noisy. Good Luck and Enjoy.....