Cari-in-Oly

I have the HQ avante which is not a mid arm but an 18" long arm. I bought the studio frame with it which can be set up at 8' or 12'. I have it set up at 8' and so far it has been plenty big enough for me. I knew if I bought a mid arm I would end up wanting something bigger but didn't want to go real big so I got the Avante and am so happy I did.

Cari

Kwiltr

I haven't read all the responses, so forgive me if I repeat information here. ;-). I started out trying to FMQ on my domestic and had a heck of a time wrapping my brain around it. I bought a Sweet 16 Sitdown and found it life changing in terms of advancing my FMQ. It was so liberating not to have the limited harp space. I didn't have a stitch regulator and over time I found my stitches just sorted itself out through perseverance and practice. I never really practiced on scrap sandwiches, but picked up cheap quilt kits to make projects with, most of which I gave away. I found that the structure of having a real quilt, encouraged me to do my best and challenged me to come up with appropriate quilting. I quilted everything from placemats to king sized quilts on my Sweet 16 with a lot of success. I was comfortable with rulers etc. I loved my Sweet 16. I got tired of the basting. I wasn't really looking for a longarm, but APQS had a sale on their Lenni machines and I bought one last year. It has been an interesting transition. The FMQ and ruler skills transferred quite readily, but the process is quite different. You can't just turn the quilt if you want to stitch a motif you are comfortable with in a certain direction. You can't just quilt from one corner diagonally across your quilt, think cross hatching. You only have a limited amount of the quilt visible at one time, depending on your throat space. I'm not saying it's bad, it's just different and something you have to learn to adapt to. There are pros and cons to both ways. The financial investment can be significantly more for a longarm set up. Anyway, There is no substitute for doing your homework and trying out a few different machines and styles of machines and even then, you may still be or likely will be uncertain. Everyone of them has a learning curve. Enjoy the process. Good luck. BTW. I love my Longarm :-).

Tothill

I will repeat what others have said, if at all possible go to a big show and try as many of the machines as you possibly can, sit down, stand up etc. If there are any classes local to you for any brand go take them. One of my LQS had an HQ educator come in and most the people attending do not yet own either a sit down or stand up machine.

Check if there is a shop near you that rents time on their machine. There is one 15 minutes from my home and one an hour from my home. Different machines, but will give you an idea of how they feel. Plus you get to complete a project.

Find out which dealers service your area. The machine heads are very heavy, will the dealer come to you? Will the dealer set up for you? Does the dealer offer any lessons?

Due to the expense of these machines it is worth your while to spend the time and money fully investigating your options, it will not be time wasted. I was looking at traveling away for a weekend to rent time on a machine that was different from the ones available locally. Then I realized that I would feel more comfortable with a local dealer, so that narrowed my options.

Think about your current and long range living situation. If you buy a LA on a frame, will you have room for it if you move in 5 years? Many have to sell due to downsizing.

Consider buying used. I did from a woman in the situation above. She could not fit her LQ in her new home. She sold it to me and was going to buy a HQ Simply 16 on the Little Foot Frame. I plan to live in my home for the next 30 years, so I know I have room for my machine for the long haul.

In a few years I may upgrade. Where I live there is a demand to used machines, so I am not worried about finding a buyer for the one I have.

Oh I do not like basting, so for me a sit down machine was not an option.

Ariannaquilts

I just wanted to say that the Grace Company currently has a sale on the Q'nique 15 with the frame for $2999 it also has built in stitch regulator! You surely can't beat that price and they provide excellent support. Good luck with whatever you choose to purchase.

stitch678

I purchased a Bailey Home Quilter. It can be used at a table or in a frame.l even took it in my RV when travelling...15" size. I use it in a frame at home. Most Grace queen frames have extensions you can add to make it king. However, that's a lot of empty frame if you do mostly lap quits or baby quilts. There's a new frame, the 20" float frame, (useable for any size quilt, )put out by Qunique, but is only available in a package with their machines. I've heard good things about that machine, but have never tried it.

mjpEncinitas

One thing that really helped me make decision was I took a day long class using the sweet sixteen sit down machine at the Road to CA quilt show. I learned a skill I wanted to know and I learned that I liked using a sit down machine.

The reasons I chose a sit down machine are
1. I like to do whole quilt designs. This is not easy to do on a frame. In addition to the typical quilts I do a lot of art quilts. I do have it set up right next to a big table, so the quilt is completely supported. I may put a table on the other side.
2. My FMQ skills on my home machine transferred very well. This isn’t applicable to you.
3. The cost was considerably less. $3000 for a good used machine.
4. Not as much maintenance hassles. Less parts to go wrong.


Since you have no experience with FMQ I would be hesitant to buy either type without first renting at least 6 hours on a machine somewhere, with expert guidance. You need to see what’s involved with maintaining the machines, especially a long arm, and the learning curve to FMQ can be pretty large. There are so many people who buy these machines and find them too difficult to use easily. If you can’t take a class at a a show or local shop I would consider paying a local long arm owner to give you some lessons on their machine. Also it’s clear that having good support from the makers of the machine through shops or telephone support is crucial and should be a high priority. This may be the most important thing for new owners.

when I went to Road to Ca I was impressed with the people who sold the sweet sixteen and George. I didn’t even stop at the block rocket booth. They had hired a bunch of young men for the show who didn’t have the experience of the other sales people. The others seemed to be in it for the long haul. The sweet sixteen vendors helped me find a used machine from one of their customers who upgraded to a long arm. They didn’t make much on this sale.

Take me your time. Spend the time to make sure this is what you want. You can pay for hundreds of tops to be professsionally quilted with what you’ll spend on a long arm.

Good luck!

oreo1912

I have had a SR2 frame for about 2 years now. I have a brother pq1500 9" on it. All I could afford. The frame is solid but. Couple of points. The hardware is not a hard grade and you will wear out the threads raising and lowering the bars. Suggest you get a good rubber washer and put it behind the metal one provided. That makes it grip to the metal frame and then you don't have to crank so tightly on the screw threads to get it to hold. My first set of Hardware lasted about 5mos.... Second set with washers I have had 1 1/2 yrs. also you have to pull out on these pegs to unlock it from the wratchet teeth. Support the bottom of that bracket when you do this and that will also help maintain your hardware. Now having only a 9" means I do a lot of rolling also. You can do about a 82" wide quilt comfortably. You can get 88" to fit but you will be carriage to end of frame on the borders. Doable but not comfortable also not enough room to get to bobbin area. Now length is no problem other than with the floating top you have the top and batting bunched up on the floor. Also those white clips will not work on a large quilt. They do not open wide enough to fit over the backing roll and batting and top. But you don't really need them until you get to the end. I have taken my quilt out and reloaded the side so I could do the borders complete and not have to do them in 9" sections. That does work but I don't know how you would do that side-to-side for a wider quilt. I would say either go with 2 sections and piece or maybe do side borders on dsm.

i went to the frame because using a dsm and moving by hand was very hard on my hands. Being able to move the machine only on the frame is much easier on my hands. Carriage moves freely most of the time I use one hand with no problem. If you have a space problem I put one end by the doorway which gives me the ability use that walkway as easement for working with the bar adjustments. I have about 8" of space on the other end and it is enough to reach and raise or lower the bars and I have short arms.

it is a solid frame and goes together very easily. I would go with th largest throat space I could afford. I would give up frame size for throat space. Wish I could have afforded a 15" but at least I know I can go to it someday. 9" isn't ideal but doable you just have to plan more where you are going to stop and start.