After reading the comment from Alice about doing her own quilting I just wanted to encourage folks to at least give it a try. Baby and lap size charity quilts are perfect pieces to practice technique on. The small size makes learning a bit easier. I am always pushing folks to buy the Harriet Hargrave book. I had an older version so I finally upgraded to the current one. It has more info and is well worth the upgrade. I saw in QNM that Diane Guidanski is a top MQ'ing teacher. Her book is great too. One of my local favorites is Paula Reid. I think she has a video with her technique. She alleges it takes 26 hours of practice to get the swing of FM quilting. There are tons of books, lots of classes and folks here who will offer lots of advice. Some of us dabble and then we have the pro's like Kathy and others. Sure the fancy long arm work is really cool but if you can physically take doing the work yourself it is worth a shot. My stops and starts are improving, thankfully and that Pfaff link that was posted here encouraged me to spend some time trying out more freehand feathers. There is hope. One of the new larger harp machines make things easier but not necessary. Paula Reid does (at least did for years) her work on a standard Bernina (or two). I think DH finally 'really' fixed the bum Janome foot pedal on my 6600 and that has helped a lot. (not wanting to chuck the machine out the window for glitching just has to help!) Give MQ'ing a try and see what happens, then give it another try and see if it gets even better. You just might like it and have a lot more fabric dollars to spend!
Taria, no manicures or shortage of gray hair!