FabFourth Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Hi Everyone! I have been 'lurking' around the site for a while and it is so great to read your thoughts! The Road Show is coming to Indianapolis this Friday and I'm going! I'm excited but scared because I know I will want to buy Lenni. It's so hard to know if you can actually do it successfully BEFORE you buy! I have been working on a Little Gracie/Janome 1600P setup for a year and a half. I've talked to local shops (most are about 5 months behind) and have been selling custom quilts to my coworkers for several years now. All this, and I still don't feel ready to DO this! But yet, I want to more than anything! Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Anyone else have a Lenni yet? She looks like great fun! FabFourth (of Four Friends and Fabric) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbishwit Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 HI, Welcome!! If you are planning on do LA as a business I would go with one of the larger machines. Lenni comes with a 10ft table the largest size quilt you would be able to do is a full or maybe squeeze in a small queen size quilt (you have to remember to figure in the size of the backing/batting which needs to be at least 6"-8" larger than the quilt top for proper tension when stitching). With a 12ft table you can do up to a king size quilt (not the Californa King though, for those you need the 14ft table). And then you need to think about if sometime down the road if you would ever want a compuquilter on your machine, if the answer is yes then you need to go with the Freedom or the Mille because of the throat size. There is a lot to think about when deciding on what machine to buy, such as... 1) Price 2) function (custom vs pantos or computerized) 3) growth potential Also alot of people who work full or part time dream about owning one of these machines but really can't afford them so they justify the purchase of them by starting up a long arm business to help defray the expense only to find out later that they don't have any time for anything else (no family time, no quilting for themselves-which is why they wanted the machine in the first place), and the stress and guilt can really take a toll on them. So before you buy you really need to think about what you are getting yourself into...if you can afford one of these machines without needing it to make money for you than you will be very happy and will enjoy the whole experience. But if you are jumping into it because you want it because you think it would be great to own one but can't really afford it so you will do whatever it takes to have it even if it means that you will end up stretching yourself physically and financally to get it then you are going to be very unhappy down the road. Good luck with your decision whichever way you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenscratch Posted August 13, 2007 Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 Joann, very good advice and very well said. I made that mistake of thinking the machine would pay for itself. It didn't and still hasn't. Thanks for telling it like it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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