Hi...well, I tried everything to try to find a way to put a longarm with frame in my townhouse. I cannot. I even had a brainstorm in the middle of the night one night and got up and measured. (I know, I'm just a little bit crazy).

So I have to rethink what I'm going to do. My current set up will not be sufficient for the quantity of sewing and quilting I am planning to do, and I think I must do something. My Bernina 200E that I upgraded is first of all inadequate and it just seems to be getting old and has lots of little problems.

I have two options the way I see it: 1) buy a really nice high-end Bernina 830 and a new table, which I CAN fit in to my studio if I move my current desk to my bedroom; 2) Replace my Bernina 200E upgraded, and buy a sit-down longarm and table. The first option with hoops and software upgrade and everything I need is about $14,500. I have no idea what the second one will be.

I've tried the longarms on frames, but not as a sitdown. So the question is...who out there has a sit down longarm set up, what is it and how do you like it? (I noted in Stitched that Hollis quilts on a conventional sewing machine, and Caryl Bryer Fallert quilts on a sit down longarm, but I couldn't tell what brand--not that I'll ever match their abilities, but I am going to dry my darnedest to work that direction)

Also, does anyone know how much the new Bernina 5 series machines run? I'm thinking that might be the right one for replacing my 200E.