Everything everyone has said is true. You have to have a real business plan if you hope to succeed. It does take a long time and many hours of practice to get good, I know. You will not be able to buy your machine and start quilting for others right away. You would have to be able to make your payments yourself until you get some business lined up. Guilds are a good place to advertise along with quilt shops, craft shows ( offer your own crafts for sale), fabric shops and even the web. Remember people also like to buy thread art work you do yourself to sell. Good luck.

i also offer a class on my big machine, a person comes in, learns the machine,cleans it, changes needle, winds bobbins, threads machine, loads a practice quilt...practices on it using the laser with panto's we try a stencil, do some free hand, anything and everything. then after that 4 hour class, time can be rented on the machine for $20 an hour to quilt their own quilts. out of the people who have taken the certification class most come back (75%) and do another quilt of their own...then about 1/2 continue to quilt their own, the other 1/2 have decided although it was fun, they would rather i quilt their quilts for them.
when my machine was first bought it was a 'family' decision...and the men in my world assured me i would probably never have to use it..the guys were doing this part (hubby, son, nephew) so we got the machine up & running everyone tried it out...hubby even did i think 3 quilts before deciding he had no motivation, or interest. son & nephew both moved to florida...so i found my self with a big machine sitting idle...with a hubby on his way out of my life anyway (surprise, surprise)
i was unsure of my ability to do alot of quilting, i tore my shoulder up bad a few years ago. some days i can quilt for 4-6 hours in a day (i take breaks every 45 minutes) some days 1 hour and i done...
you have to be able to stand for hours, use your arms for hours; it is physical labor. totally different from sitting in front of your sewing machine.
anyone thinking about jumping into long-arm machine quilting should find classes, try out as many machines as possible and make sure you are physically able along with just liking the process. i have a couple customers who make absolutely fabulous quilts , who did not like this part of the process at all and leave it to me.
we all look at pictures and think...if i had that big machine i could do that too...it is not that simple, it takes hundreds of hours of practice, it takes hours to quilt a quilt, it is labor. and the quilters who get backlogged....hmmmmmm. when i have 2 or 3 quilts waiting for their turn on the machine i tell people when they call...i'm a bit behind right now, looks like it could be a month before i can take in a quilt..if you need it quilted now here's a couple numbers to try. if you still need it done in a couple weeks, or just really want me to do it, call me back in a couple weeks to see where i am...i do not let them stack up, i don't want to be responsible for a stack of quilts if something should happen.

I went to a quilt shop around my area and they had a long arm machine there so I asked how much it would cost to quilt a quilt. she told me $160. I'm on a limited income and could not afford to spend that much money to quilt my quilt when I can do it for nothing myself. It might take longer and maybe no fancy stitches but you do what you can afford. I wish I could find a place close to home cheaper. Sometimes I get so impatient waiting for a quilt to get done. But at least I know I've done it myself. And my kids seem to appreciate it more. Good luck. I even thought about buying a machine quilt frame and try using my own machine, but they are so expensive.

Gals, you are so right that it takes practice, practice and more practice. Our small quilt guild just bought an older model longarm (no frills of any kind) to quilt the quilts we make for people who lose their homes and possessions to fire as we did not have the money to have them machine quilted and too many of our guild are no longer able to hand quilt for various reasons. I have quilted a small charity quilt and believe me it would never do for one that was done for hire. several of the members thought it looked fine, but if you truthfully look and criticize your work you know it isn't. I am practicing on some bed sheets now on a pattern that we will probably use for some of our "fire" quilts and I am a LONNNNNGGGGG way from being reasonably good. I do enjoy doing it, but can see where it can be laborious as standing for a number of hours and using your arms and shoulders can be very tiring I am sure. Like several have said, buy it for your own use and then when you "know" you are good then try for some outside quilting. We have already had people ask us if we would quilt for them, and I politely but firmly tell them, it will be a long time before we are ready to quilt any quilts for hire (and most likely never will unless we need to raise money for more batting etc.) It certainly looks a lot easier to do than it is. One of the ladies that had wanted to learn on the machine when we purchased it, tried it and very quickly said, "that's not for me, you all have at it". I would love to have a newer machine of my own with a stitch regulator (which would be a must on any future purchase), but I don't have the room to put it or the funds to do it with for now and I am not going in debt for even a used one. So buy it for yourself and practice until you are blue in the face and see if you take to it like a duck to water. Some people never do. Just my two cents worth for the day. If you get a machine, have fun with it.

In speaking with many other hand quilters, we all feel that too much emphasis is being put on the longarm quilting. What ever happened to all the beautiful handwork that went with quilting. Many pieces that we see are pieced beautiful but all of that "quilting" is taking away from the real work that has been done.

I personally feel that some of the longarm quilting is beautiful but is overpowering the quilt pieceing and work.

Longarm users in this area who bought their machines with the idea of paying for it by doing work for others are not making out very well. Thank goodness some are going back to hand work or just plain can't afford to pay to have their quilts done by someone else with the rotten economy.

Out of curiosity what are the going prices for long arms?

I have a used quilting machine, I have quilted for people and I'm always scared something will happen. I pray a lot before quilting someone elses. I don't use pantagrams I don't like them. I just stipple, my machine doesn't have a computer in it and I'm glad just something else to go wrong.
It's a lot of work to quilt for yourself and the public, very demanding. I hope you make the right decision for yourself.

As another hand quilter, I respectfully disagree with you. I think machine quilting keeps the quilting industry alive and healthy - if my LQS owner depended on me to keep her shop open, she'd have gone out of business years ago. :)

I have over $8000. in my HQ16 and this is without the programed designs. That would be another $6 -$8000.

[quote=fancifrock]In speaking with many other hand quilters, we all feel that too much emphasis is being put on the longarm quilting. What ever happened to all the beautiful handwork that went with quilting. Many pieces that we see are pieced beautiful but all of that "quilting" is taking away from the real work that has been done. ]

I agree that hand quilting is an art form and one with a long tradition and have the highest respect for Hand quilters Long Arm quilting is also its own art form. Think about all of the inovations that have been made over the years! Sewing machines for one, without how many would have time to hand piece every quilt. Rotory cutters.. how many quilts would be sewn if all quilts had to be cut from templates. I still come across paritally cut quilts that never got to the sewing stage because someone lost interest ... or what ever. The walking foot and then the free motion foot, Fusibles, stabilizers..... I am always excited to see what may come!
I think all of the innovations have allowed more so much diversity in quilting that there truley is something for everyone. Having started quilting before the rotary cutter , I am excited everytime I go to a show or read a book , because this is a craft and art that will continue to evolve. We live in exciting times!